Skip to main content

Facebook Makes Efforts to Improve Ad Transparency


Have you ever wondered why certain advertisements are displayed on your Facebook News Feed? Recently, Facebook has been striving to alter the way advertisers control their custom audience lists. A custom audience list refers to the contact records advertisers transfer to Facebook to target advertisements. These uploaded lists include: phone numbers, email addresses, and other data which use algorithms to cross reference information against profiles. The goal of this action is for Facebook to provide more transparency to their users and explain why specific ads appear on their News Feed.
Starting on July 2nd, advertisers will have to specifically identify the source of an audience’s information at the time they utilize a custom audience list. When uploading these lists, advertisers will be required to state whether the information was gathered directly from customers, directly from agencies, or from a combination of both customers and data providers or agencies.
In addition to advertisers specifying where and how they gather user data, all members of an advertisers account team who has access and manages Custom Audiences will be required to acknowledge and agree to Facebook’s new terms.
Due to this new condition, users will be more conscious of why they are viewing specific advertisements. By clicking the “Why am I seeing this?” section in the drop-down menu attached to every advertisement, Facebook users will be shown who specifically added them to the list of people advertisers or providers were attempting to reach. Furthermore, this feature will inform the user how their information was acquired whether it was through their phone number, email, or another channel. If a user no longer wishes to view ads from an advertiser or provider, then they can edit that feature by selecting manage their ad preferences. Users are also allowed to hide ads. These stipulations remind advertisers that it is imperative to protect users’ privacy before they run specific ads.
In March, Facebook updated its privacy options for their users by eliminating the third-party “Partner Categories” program which enables advertisers to target users based off demographics or by examining their purchasing patterns. These changes are believed to be the result of the scandal surrounding Cambridge Analytics. This data analytics firm inappropriately obtained data from approximately 87 million Facebook users, which has caused many users to become skeptical of their privacy and how they are being targeted by businesses.
When ad targeting is executed properly, it can benefit both consumers as well as businesses. Facebook hopes to continue to improve transparency and accountability for advertisers.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Going Once, Going Twice, SOLD! – Biddable Media Taking the Digital Advertising Industry by Storm

Automation has had a profound impact on the digital advertising industry. The emergence of biddable media has specifically transformed the way advertisements are being purchased. Definition of Biddable Media: Digital media that may be purchased through auction platforms, predominately in real-time. Biddable media uses data to target audiences at the right time and within the proper context on a specific platform to improve campaign effectiveness. Historically, media has been purchased in bulk following contracts between media companies and agencies. Now, the process of buying media is virtually instantaneous. Bids are based on live data in terms of what buyers are willing to spend. If a bid is won, then a buyer’s ad will be posted on the publisher’s site automatically. An appealing aspect of biddable media is that purchasing can be optimized due to the success or failure of an advertisement. If a campaign is performing highly, a greater bid may be placed to gain even more expo...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Future of Marketing is Real-Time

The emergence of real-time content as a marketing strategy has gained momentum over the past several years. Facebook, Snapchat, and Instagram are among the most popular social media platforms that have utilized this booming trend. More recently, the ability to live stream via different outlets have boosted engagement for companies across the world. Real-time marketing stems from delivering the appropriate content at the proper and respective time. Furthermore, it is a way in which a company can react or respond to current events and use the situation to their advantage through the production of creative and original material. A prime example of this may be seen through Oreos tweet during the third quarter of Super Bowl XLVII in February of 2013. Following the power outage at the Mercedes-Benz Superdome during the game, Oreo’s social media team immediately posted a tweet with an ad captioned, “Power Out? The ad attached to the tweet featured a picture of an Oreo in a dully lit room...
Post a Comment
Read more

Ideas for a Fictional Company

1.)       Pizza Mind- This would be the name for a pizzeria. This company would be a restaurant and would sell freshly made pizza. If I was marketing this company, I would have photo of a brain and have the brain be made of pizza. I would also have a slice of the pizza being taken from the top portion of the brain and have the cheese dripping. 2.)       Aquaholic- A company that sells yachts. Some people like to buy boats as a sign of status. I would want to have the logo emphasize the luxuriousness of the boats that this company sells. I would want the font to also convey this elegance. 3.)       Another fictional idea could be an educational app that teaches people about astronomy. This app could teach young children about space, the planets, and stars. Astronomy is not taught very often and many children have an interest in space. 4.)       Another fictional idea could be a mixo...
Post a Comment
Read more