Facebook advertising is growing up, but needs to keep growing

Posted on | September 7, 2008 |

I posted this on my Facebook wall:

I am laughing at the ads Facebook chooses to serve me. I mean seriously. Just because I’m single, straight and male, it’s appropriate to show me pictures of “hotties” and wedding rings? Grow up, advertising! And grow up advertisers!

Contextual advertising has a looooooong way to go! At least you can vote for ads, teaching Facebook what you may want to have served to you. I guess it’s a two-way situation. The more you “tell” Facebook about your interests, the more they have on which to base serving ads.

One of my friends replied with this link from the Washington Post:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/02/AR2008090202956.html

At my day job, I am an advertiser and marketer, but I am also a human. I’ve decided to hold off on advertising in Facebook because of things like this. It’s great for us to be able to target people who are more likely to be receptive to ads, but by the looks of it most people are still using the shotgun approach to marketing while in the midst of contextual ad service. Stupid. You know something about them, so why are you still using the fear method to get their attention? more after the jump

The image above is from the Washington Post article. I would never see that because men never get “muffin tops”. We get “love handles”. Frankly, this is derogatory. People are pissed. But they should not be pissed at Facebook - they should be pissed off at the advertisers. What do you do when you’re unhappy with your government? Vote! Same here, folks. Use the voting buttons!

The image at left is what I see at writing of this post. I have left at least 200 votes on advertising feedback and am curious to see how this goes. I believe these ads are better in quality than the previous I have seen. I still object to being served ads for dating just because I am single. My profile does not indicate I am looking for “dating”, only “friendship” and “networking”. If I were marked as being on the hunt for dates, it would be acceptable. This is inaccurate ad serving. But, contextually speaking, it’s right on because of the text post I made on my wall (quoted above). This is the error, drawing ad keywords from random thoughts, not from specified interests.

I am being fair and voting accurately. To date, there has been no democracy in advertising that I know of… Facebook has taken a unique approach to ad feedback. And just like presidential elections, voting only works if you do it. You have to participate if you don’t like the advertising.

Advertisers should consider devising ads that respect their potential “targets”. I know that I respond to ads that treat me with consideration and ask me to participate, instead of telling me. The marketing that has always been most successful for me involves ENGAGING people. Starting a conversation with them and participating like a human. Not just interrupting them, putting the fear of something in them and then walking away, hoping they act on it sometime in the future.

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Facebook advertising is growing up, but needs to keep growing

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