Facebook Advertising System Off Target?

Stop Showing Me Ads For Meat - I Am A Vegetarian!

The Facebook advertising platform is showing ads targeted as well as an ad for Viagara to a 17 year old. That is, according to Blogging Stocks Barry Summerlin. Alright those are not his words (they are mine), but one has to truly wonder how targeted the Facebook advertising platform is when users start to complain. After all, aren’t we as marketers supposed to be the ones complaining that publishers can’t deliver our targeted consumer?

Summerlin quips,

“Why, when I log on to Facebook in the year 2007, is glorious old UoP (University of Phoenix) still hassling me to go get my GED or whatever learn-at-home hustle it’s running, particularly when the actual, genuine university that graduated me way back when is right there on the page, pulsing in Carolina blue beneath my favorite hilarious and insightful quotes?”

Summerlin’s experience is not isolated or unique. I have experienced the wrath of un-targeted on an almost daily basis. These sort of user experiences kill the buzz surrounding Facebook’s “highly targeted” advertising platform. This leads me to wonder, though, whether advertisers themselves are to blame for the un-targeted advertisements, not Facebook. It is conceivable that advertisers are not fully using the demographic targeting that Facebook offers.

Or maybe the reason for Mark Zuckerberg’s trip to Redmond was to discuss the inept job Microsoft has done with serving relevant ads (which it is known for) on Facebook? Could this have prompted Steve Ballmer to state that Facebook was nothing more than a fad, likely to decline in popularity as fickle teenagers move to the next big thing. Whomever is to blame for the rampant existence of un-targeted ads on Facebook is irrelevant. The fact is that it does exist and it is something that Facebook will need to address in order to continue to keep users happy and advertisers coming back for more.

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