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I’m not on Facebook so I can’t speak to what you personally see. However, I think the “support small business” angle is going to be somewhat compelling. I have,

I’m not on Facebook so I can’t speak to what you personally see. However, I think the “support small business” angle is going to be somewhat compelling. I have, for example, two friends who are starting a niche business, offering a good and ethical service, and reaching people in that niche through Facebook and Instagram ads. The customers they find love what they’re doing and happily paying. If I had Facebook, I could see doing my small part to help them find a few more of those types of good businesses succeed. I also kind of despise Facebook, hence no account, so I don’t mind if this permission screen fails. :)

bluesign 6y ago
I bet for every one small business like your friend, there is 10 scammy business (something like selling 1$ item for 20$ with 40% discount) who is betting 10x more than your legit friend for impressions.
- 1123581321 6y ago
  I’d love to see numbers if you have them. The idea that hurting bad small businesses is a positive externality is intriguing. I suppose we could hope that, opt-in or not, the move away from easy user tracking could benefit ethical businesses more than what you describe.
  - bluesign 6y ago
    Unfortunately I cannot share any data from the accounts I manage (mainly competitors are the shady ones), but simply you can go let's say instagram or facebook, and log the ads you saw (without clicking) in a single session (like first 20), then you can go check them. Probably what you will be interested will be almost at the end of the list, the first ones will be high margin products. To be honest, I don't see hope for ethical small business without user tracking. That's why Facebook is pushing that angle, even it is very small percentage on the overall. Big players will be almost not effected anyway.
purplecats 6y ago
I have no empathy for them. I tried to advertise my dating business on there, and got insta-banned both times because they basically don't let you compete with their dating services.
- ddoolin 6y ago
  Wow! Really. I'm currently working on a nascent dating business and that's kind of disappointing to hear as I was counting on being able to advertise through that channel. Thanks for sharing.
  - purplecats 6y ago
    advertising for dating services are nontrivial across most of the popular domains on the web. you need to contact support and go through special processes, even for Reddit Ads.
- 1123581321 6y ago
  I agree that’s wrong. Sounds like potential fodder for some of the ongoing legal surrounding Facebook.
mrtksn 6y ago
Were there no small businesses before FB and internet tracking? Is there any proof that FB actually helped out small business? Wouldn't showing ads for tech on a tech site and ads for women beauty products be shown on a site targeting women be a good replacement instead of profiling you and tracking you everywhere to determine that you might be a woman interested in JS IDE and Aloe Vera cream?
- 1123581321 6y ago
  Those are good questions. I would love to see more browsing of independent websites. I think the question is what to do when people don't do that as much anymore, and other forms of marketing communication are too expensive for fledgling businesses.

bluesign 6y ago

I bet for every one small business like your friend, there is 10 scammy business (something like selling 1$ item for 20$ with 40% discount) who is betting 10x more than your legit friend for impressions.

1123581321 6y ago
I’d love to see numbers if you have them. The idea that hurting bad small businesses is a positive externality is intriguing. I suppose we could hope that, opt-in or not, the move away from easy user tracking could benefit ethical businesses more than what you describe.
- bluesign 6y ago
  Unfortunately I cannot share any data from the accounts I manage (mainly competitors are the shady ones), but simply you can go let's say instagram or facebook, and log the ads you saw (without clicking) in a single session (like first 20), then you can go check them. Probably what you will be interested will be almost at the end of the list, the first ones will be high margin products. To be honest, I don't see hope for ethical small business without user tracking. That's why Facebook is pushing that angle, even it is very small percentage on the overall. Big players will be almost not effected anyway.

purplecats 6y ago

I have no empathy for them. I tried to advertise my dating business on there, and got insta-banned both times because they basically don't let you compete with their dating services.

ddoolin 6y ago
Wow! Really. I'm currently working on a nascent dating business and that's kind of disappointing to hear as I was counting on being able to advertise through that channel. Thanks for sharing.
- purplecats 6y ago
  advertising for dating services are nontrivial across most of the popular domains on the web. you need to contact support and go through special processes, even for Reddit Ads.
1123581321 6y ago
I agree that’s wrong. Sounds like potential fodder for some of the ongoing legal surrounding Facebook.

mrtksn 6y ago

Were there no small businesses before FB and internet tracking? Is there any proof that FB actually helped out small business? Wouldn't showing ads for tech on a tech site and ads for women beauty products be shown on a site targeting women be a good replacement instead of profiling you and tracking you everywhere to determine that you might be a woman interested in JS IDE and Aloe Vera cream?

1123581321 6y ago
Those are good questions. I would love to see more browsing of independent websites. I think the question is what to do when people don't do that as much anymore, and other forms of marketing communication are too expensive for fledgling businesses.