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How Do Facebook Ads Work? (1 Viewer)

C

cubd8

Footballguy
How Do Facebook Ads Work?

Dumb question, but I was on my Facebook Newsfeed and an advertisement for Triscuit crackers popped into my feed.

It got me thinking....A few weeks back, while shopping at Target, I did pick up a box and paid for them on my Red Card, which is a Target Debit Card that saves me 5% on all purchases. I bought plenty of other items while at Target and shop there for groceries.

Anyways, I haven't searched on Google for Triscuit crackers, I haven't emailed anyone using that term, etc.

How did this get into my newsfeed as an advertisement? It's odd because I was eating them, and saw this...

Was this just coincidence?

 
I'm not an expert--but your smart home devices, speakers, internet searches, web browsing history, phone, tablet..etc--all use complicated algorithms that can figure out your tendencies, purchasing habits..etc.  They use that information to target advertisements to you.  

 
Last week, I bought some bathroom/shower cleaner at Sam's. Never googled or searched for shower cleaner. No smart devices in my home. So, the next day I was scrubbing on the shower, and it wasn't going so well. I stopped thinking I need to find a better shower cleaner.

5 minutes later, I check FB and a shower cleaner ad pops up immediately. 

 
cubd8 said:
How Do Facebook Ads Work?

Dumb question, but I was on my Facebook Newsfeed and an advertisement for Triscuit crackers popped into my feed.

It got me thinking....A few weeks back, while shopping at Target, I did pick up a box and paid for them on my Red Card, which is a Target Debit Card that saves me 5% on all purchases. I bought plenty of other items while at Target and shop there for groceries.

Anyways, I haven't searched on Google for Triscuit crackers, I haven't emailed anyone using that term, etc.

How did this get into my newsfeed as an advertisement? It's odd because I was eating them, and saw this...

Was this just coincidence?
Click to expand...
For you though, surely they were tracking your response in the Triscuit vs. Wheat Thins debate.

Or they just know Target shoppers prefer Triscuits.

 
cubd8 said:
How Do Facebook Ads Work?

Dumb question, but I was on my Facebook Newsfeed and an advertisement for Triscuit crackers popped into my feed.

It got me thinking....A few weeks back, while shopping at Target, I did pick up a box and paid for them on my Red Card, which is a Target Debit Card that saves me 5% on all purchases. I bought plenty of other items while at Target and shop there for groceries.

Anyways, I haven't searched on Google for Triscuit crackers, I haven't emailed anyone using that term, etc.

How did this get into my newsfeed as an advertisement? It's odd because I was eating them, and saw this...

Was this just coincidence?
Click to expand...
You're freaking out cause a gay dating site popped up on your feed arent you?

 
cubd8 said:
How Do Facebook Ads Work?

Dumb question, but I was on my Facebook Newsfeed and an advertisement for Triscuit crackers popped into my feed.

It got me thinking....A few weeks back, while shopping at Target, I did pick up a box and paid for them on my Red Card, which is a Target Debit Card that saves me 5% on all purchases. I bought plenty of other items while at Target and shop there for groceries.

Anyways, I haven't searched on Google for Triscuit crackers, I haven't emailed anyone using that term, etc.

How did this get into my newsfeed as an advertisement? It's odd because I was eating them, and saw this...

Was this just coincidence?
Click to expand...
Google Smell

 
People still use FB? Not being snarky, but I moved to IG 3 years ago and I know last year their traffic was down 50% 2016-18. Virtually everyone I know in NYC stopped using either to post or as a news feed. I think some might cross post from IG?

I curated my daughter's first 7-8 years on FB, as most of my family in the midwest is on it (& curiously, few of them migrated to IG/InstaStory.) I still go to FB once a day, but for one thing and one thing only - to see my memories, which are typically pics I took of my dd 4-6-8 years ago. Fun to relive adventures, moments and vacations.

Anyway, whilst there I'll occasionally notice friends have updated their FB story (is that what they call it?) and it's almost always identical to their InstaStory, e.g., they only post to IG but still have their FB account linked.

 
BobbyLayne said:
People still use FB? Not being snarky, but I moved to IG 3 years ago and I know last year their traffic was down 50% 2016-18. Virtually everyone I know in NYC stopped using either to post or as a news feed. I think some might cross post from IG?

I curated my daughter's first 7-8 years on FB, as most of my family in the midwest is on it (& curiously, few of them migrated to IG/InstaStory.) I still go to FB once a day, but for one thing and one thing only - to see my memories, which are typically pics I took of my dd 4-6-8 years ago. Fun to relive adventures, moments and vacations.

Anyway, whilst there I'll occasionally notice friends have updated their FB story (is that what they call it?) and it's almost always identical to their InstaStory, e.g., they only post to IG but still have their FB account linked.
Click to expand...
FB owns Instagram, so yes the platform is different, the back office is basically the same. Zuck has said they are working on ways to merge the 2, at least in functionality. He also would prefer FB to act more like messenger and in the last few weeks have started prioritizing FB groups over personal posts in your main feed. Again similar to the way you follow topics on IG.  That's also why FB has added stories to their platform, they saw how popular it was on IG. 

 
BobbyLayne said:
People still use FB? Not being snarky, but I moved to IG 3 years ago and I know last year their traffic was down 50% 2016-18. Virtually everyone I know in NYC stopped using either to post or as a news feed. I think some might cross post from IG?

I curated my daughter's first 7-8 years on FB, as most of my family in the midwest is on it (& curiously, few of them migrated to IG/InstaStory.) I still go to FB once a day, but for one thing and one thing only - to see my memories, which are typically pics I took of my dd 4-6-8 years ago. Fun to relive adventures, moments and vacations.

Anyway, whilst there I'll occasionally notice friends have updated their FB story (is that what they call it?) and it's almost always identical to their InstaStory, e.g., they only post to IG but still have their FB account linked.
Click to expand...
I have some bad news for you. 

 
Last edited by a moderator:
Interesting. Seems FB will be adding a 'clear history' feature that will allow users to scrub their digital path from advertisers and sites that they visit. 

“When someone disconnects their off-Facebook activity, we won't use the data they clear for targeting,” Facebook said in a blog post on Tuesday. “This means that targeting options powered by Facebook's business tools … can't be used to reach someone with ads.”
Click to expand...

 
It's triscuits from a billion-dollar company, not some obscure product.

Maybe they do use Targeted ads, but this doesn't seem like the craziest coincidence.

 
although, here is a very old article related to this: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/09/26/facebook-is-tracking-what-users-buy-in-stores-to-see-whether-its-ads-work/#6b5d13a36c8d

It seems like they certainly were doing it in a somewhat indirect (though perhaps precise enough) way.  This describes kind of the reverse of what you are saying, but does explain how the link would work.

The Financial Times reports that Facebook has come up with a way to tell whether users bought products in stores after seeing ads for them on the social network. To do this, Facebook has partnered with Colorado-based Datalogix. What is this oddly-named company you've never heard of? It's one of the several companies out there with access to the rich information generated by retailers' loyalty cards. Yup, those cards you swipe when you check out in order to get discounts. The cards keep track of everything you buy and it goes into a database. Datalogix, in this case, is able to cross-reference its sales records with Facebook's records of who's seen a particular ad, and voila, one can surmise that the person who saw a Tide detergent ad went and bought that detergent at CVS because of the ad. It's a nifty way for Facebook to be able to reassure worried advertisers that Facebook advertising is worthwhile.

Basically, Facebook has a list of people who saw the Tide ad. They take the group's identifying details (such as the email addresses and phone numbers associated with those Facebook accounts) and "hash" them, turning khill@forbes.com for example into 1234456789. Datalogix meanwhile takes its list of every single person who's bought Tide over a given period of time -- and any identifying information it has from retailers' loyalty cards, such as email addresses and phone numbers -- and also "hashes" it, using the same hash as Facebook. So if 1234456789 turns up in both batches, they know one person saw the ad and also bought the Tide, but they don't know it was me.

Based on that report, Facebook can go to Tide and say X% of people who saw its ad bought its product.

So, yes, your behavior is being sliced and diced and analyzed, but it's being done without actually telling Facebook (or the advertiser) what YOU bought at CVS.
Click to expand...

 
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