The article points out that Facebook can accurately target ads based on the posts posted by users, the apps they use, the advertisements they click on, and personal information such as age, gender and location, even the devices they use, and the connected networks. Even if the user leaves the site , Facebook still has tools to track users.
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If you want to customize a Facebook ad for one of Facebook's 2.2 billion users, you can do it.
If you try to sell your boutique bed and breakfast to a 44-year-old 'Moddling Mom', and this tidal mother lives in Seattle, she is politically conservative and is currently traveling in the Toronto area, but hasn’t booked a hotel overnight? If you want to mail-order a pet snack for a 32-year-old Madison cat owner in Wisconsin who prefers Japanese food, does not like pizza, and will celebrate the wedding anniversary in the next two months? This is not a problem.
This is what targeting advertising can do for you. It can be customized almost infinitely, sometimes in unexpected ways. The advertisements you see may be customized for you based on the smallest details - not just where you live. Which websites have you visited recently, and whether you have engaged in the past 6 months, whether you are interested in organic foods, whether you have something in common with someone who recently bought a BMW car, even if you have never expressed such interest yourself.
Last year, Facebook’s advertising revenue was US$40 billion, and its share in the global digital advertising market was second only to Google Inc. Even if Facebook recently decided to stop working with external data brokers to help advertisers target advertising based on offline shopping or credit history, However, Facebook’s advertising revenue this year is expected to increase substantially.
Here are some ways advertisers can send targeted ads to you via Facebook:
Monitor your Facebook activity
Now, as you may already know, Facebook will use your interests, age and other personal information, location information to help advertisers lock you in. In addition, advertisers will also pay attention to what your friends did and his preferences, because this Help them understand what you may want to do and what they like. So if you have a friend who likes the New Yorker's Facebook page, then you may see the New Yorker ad from your stream.
However, this is only the tip of the iceberg. Facebook and advertisers are also able to speculate on you based on what you are willing to share. For example, Facebook classifies users by ethnicity and makes them 'racially similar' based on their perceived race or ethnicity. Classifications (Ethnic Affinity). For example, they may speculate based on TV programs or music that you like. In this regard, Facebook often makes mistakes. Although you may remove it, it cannot be changed. Also, Facebook There was no option to provide 'racial similarity' to whites and was accused of racial discrimination.
Although advertisers may have enough reasons to want to target a particular ethnicity user, this has caused trouble for Facebook in 2016. The non-profit agency ProPublica found that Facebook allows advertisers to exclude specific groups from their advertising coverage. Out of scope. This is illegal when advertisers place housing and employment ads.
Facebook uses user information to serve targeted advertising
At the end of 2017, Facebook announced a suspension of this feature, which will no longer allow advertisers to advertise based on racial similarities and religions, LGBT (homosexual, bisexual, and transfigurative) similarity. Advertisers can still advertise to these groups, but They cannot be excluded. Facebook stated that it is auditing whether this function has been misused and did not disclose when the function was lifted.
Although some advertisers want their advertisers to cover as many users as possible, other advertisers prefer to serve more precisely. Just as Facebook explained in an Advertiser's Guide, advertisers can base their users on their timeline. Posting on the posts, the apps they use, clicked ads, and personal information such as age, gender, location, and even the devices they use, the connected networks, lock more precisely to the advertising audience. Based on this information, advertisers can Join or exclude various categories, such as homeowners, 'tidal moms', conservatives or culinary enthusiasts.
Even so, Facebook reminds advertisers not to shrink their advertising audience too much because of over-detailed refinement. The fewer people who see the ads, the less effective it will be.
Leave Facebook and follow you
Facebook has an advertising feature called 'custom audience' that allows advertisers to target anyone who has purchased or visited their site from them. They can also lock any shared email address or download it. The people to whom they apply. Therefore, if you use Netflix, you may see new TV commercials that are of interest to you on Facebook. Or, if you share your email address when buying slippers at Land's End Then you may see ads on future slippers sales on Facebook, because Facebook also has your email address.
Then there is the "lookalike audience" function. Some people are similar to the company's existing user base, but are not users themselves. For example, this feature can help advertisers to cover users in different countries. Advertisers first pass ' Custom audiences' upload their user data, and then Facebook's algorithms start looking for users similar to them.
In addition, advertisers can also install a 'pixel tracking' tool on their website, which is a piece of code that tracks the activities of users when they leave Facebook.
Dynamic advertising
Facebook recently introduced a new type of advertising that allows companies to lock in users who have shown interest in them. It uses 'retargeting' technology, which is sometimes annoying: even if you just browse a website Handbags, whether you want to buy it or not, will always push relevant information to you while you are online. However, if dynamic ads are further upgraded, it will know if you are just browsing the handbag or putting the handbag in your shopping cart. And may offer you a 10% discount coupon.
Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg explained in a recent conference call that dynamic advertising could allow Holiday Inn to target users who have searched their website on their site but have not yet made a reservation. Ads seen by these Facebook users push personalized videos based on the dates and places they searched. Sandberg said that as a result, Holiday Inn’s return on investment has doubled compared to previous campaigns.