How are Facebook ads suited to you?

kraggy

Quick question...

How are the ads you see when you're on Facebook originate? Do they take a history of your status updates or is it deeper than that?

Does Facebook have access to your browsing history? email?

I know they have access to your email in order to import email addresses and to add a list of friends quickly when you sign up initially, but do they have constant access to your email account?

thebigbiffo

mark zuckerberg is omnipotent - fact

Trevor451

adblock plus FTW

Teutorix

/facepalm

They only access your email if you give them permission.

kraggy

Teutorix wrote: »

/facepalm

They only access your email if you give them permission.

Very helpful. What's with the "facepalm"?

They have access when you sign up to FB in the first place. So it's not such an outrageous question to ask if they have access the rest of the time.

Really, if you've nothing constructive to say, then don't bother.

maxwell smart

Browsing history - no
Your email a/c - no
What is posted to your wall - yes
private messages in FB - yes

They scan the contents of your page and direct ads that way.
They also know what age/sex/location you are and use that to target local ads to you.

They probably have a chip inside your brain too, but thats just speculation.

Biggins

Trevor451 wrote: »

adblock plus FTW

Yep. Wot ads!

I was working for a small eLearning company recently and we had to set up a Facebook advertising campaign - here's how it works:

You set it by demographic i.e. male/female, age range, location and basic details like that. The smart thing is the keywords - you can set certain keywords i.e high school, comedy etc etc, and these work based on information you have given on your profile and AFAIK the posts made on your wall.

It's all pretty straight forward.

Teutorix

kraggy wrote: »

Very helpful. What's with the "facepalm"?

They have access when you sign up to FB in the first place. So it's not such an outrageous question to ask if they have access the rest of the time.

Really, if you've nothing constructive to say, then don't bother.

No they dont.

kraggy

Teutorix wrote: »

No they dont.

They have access to your email addresses. They do with hotmail anyway.

That's how your friends list is automatically long without having to individually add each one.

biko

Since this is a technical question about Facebook I'm moving it to Social Networks.

Tar.Aldarion

it's trying to sell me sky HD, an imac and a cholesterol lowering drink, I couldn't want those things less, fail facebook, fail!

aidan_walsh

Facebook allows advertisers to targets ads to people based on a massive amount of information. Ideally, this would be used to ensure that only people who would be interested in the ad would see it.

An ad can be shown to you based on things like your gender, location, level of education, age, and you Liking items or groups, even who your employer is and where you went to college (if you listed it).

They don't have automatic access to your emails or anything else like that. Facebook does ask for email details when you sign up, but they only use that suggest people you might know to help you start building your friend list.

biko

It could be worth noting that facebook apps have been known to "leak" info about you to 3rd party.

src

SerialComplaint

Deleted User wrote: »

The smart thing is the keywords - you can set certain keywords i.e high school, comedy etc etc, and these work based on information you have given on your profile and AFAIK the posts made on your wall.

It's all pretty straight forward.

I found the keywords fairly blunt. You could only choose existing groups or existing pages that people have liked, or noted as interests. You couldn't just choose certain keywords and target the ad for anyone who has these keywords on their profile.

Or was I missing something?

obliviousgrudge

If you are referring to the ads at the side of the page, then, at the top if you click Create and Advert, you can see all the stuff they have access to.

Mine are in german half the time, so... :pac:

BrianD

I was reading recently that they have low click through rates when compared to standard banner adverts on other sites.

Spent a bit with FB advertising about a 2 years ago. Can't say that we got too much benefit out of it. Plenty of people that I know saw them so it was a bit like preaching to the converted!