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Comment by alain94040 | Hacker News Reader

It really depends on what you are trying to sell. It's pretty obvious that car ads would work better on Google: when you are in the market for a new car, you'll definitely google review sites. A perfect hint to start showing car ads.

I don't think Facebook has the data yet to detect that you are about to buy a car. If you start liking car reviews, maybe, but that's not a typical behavior.

For other products (especially the ones you didn't know you needed), Facebook beats Google hands down. So don't pass judgment one way or another too quickly.

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You're confusing branding with direct call to action advertising. Two complete different things and priced differently. Big brands aren't going for the people about to buy a car, they are working way before that. By making you see the brand day after day it becomes ingrained so that when you are ready to buy a car you think GM.

Sure, because with traditional media, that was the best they could possibly hope for. In today's world of online comparison shopping, though, brands can easily close the deal for you with one click. (The fact that you can't buy a car with one click shows how hopelessly behind the industry is.)

It is not necessary to have an image of a brand planted in your mind before a purchase. It only matters that you're guided towards the brand when you are ready to buy. Advertisers were happy with a "brand image" before because it was the best they could do. But these days, it seems almost worthless.

(The fact that you can't buy a car with one click shows how hopelessly behind the industry is.)

Cars are, for most people anyway, the kind of really large purchase that requires a lot more effort and deliberation, not to mention financing, than makes sense to do in one click.

Until someone gamifies car purchasing, so that when I get 10,000 facebook points, I can redeem for a discount at my local GM dealership. Now that would be a great source of leads for car manufacturers.

Whoa, "dealership"? That's the part of the equation that everyone wants gone.

Who buys a car without sitting in it first?

I would love to decouple the showroom (sitting in the car, test drive, whatever) from the dealership. If a car manufacturer were to create a space were I could spend some quality time with the car without any threat of encountering a commissioned dealer, I would love it.

Then, I can choose where and how I buy the car later. The manufacturer would benefit from this no matter how I buy the car. Keeping these "shark-free-showrooms" stocked with demo cars, coffee, pastries, and branded swag would just be a general marketing expense.

> I don't think Facebook has the data yet to detect that you are about to buy a car. If you start liking car reviews, maybe, but that's not a typical behavior.

I think they have the data, but maybe not the means to mine it. I'm guessing that people are interested in buying a new car at important life milestones and when replacing an older vehicle. It's pretty easy to find those milestones ("here's pictures of our new baby", "Grad 2015, whooooo", "Just started at my new job"). Signals for replacing an older vehicle could be looking up vehicle review pages on facebook (does edmunds.com have a facebook page?), like you mentioned.

So I don't think it's impossible (but definitely non-trivial). I have no idea if it's possible to target ads against the sorts of things people post to their wall/photo albums.

Your description reminds me of the Target/pregnancy story from a February[1]. The evidence there proves it's possible. The question then: Is Facebook's data as good as Target's? For Facebook, certainly. Can they get away with exposing that information to advertisers? I'm not sure.

[1]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=3601354

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