Comment by mrweasel | Hacker News Reader

Comment by mrweasel | Hacker News Reader

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Facebook ads generally seems... weird. Even the ads on Facebook itself is very often plain wrong.

That's not to say that Facebooks ads won't work in some or most cases, but there are definitivly case where they are surprisingly wrong. For me personally I don't recall ever seeing an ad on Facebook where I felt that they where targeting me directly.

It might be that the only interesting piece of info about me is that I'm male and above a certain age. I would just think that given what Facebook knows about me they would be able to target my much much better.

Currently the company that does product targeting the best seems to be Amazon, but only in the books department.

Its because Facebook can't afford to not show you an ad. So, when no one specific is paying them, you get lowest-common-denominatored.

It would be interesting to collect ad statistics from a broad range of Facebook accounts to see what they do get shown, since it would speak volumes about who's actually paying them.

That would be an interesting way to turn the tables. We are on their platform so the user data is theirs but we are also on their platform so the ad data is ours. Of course, this would need an app (or plugin or whatever they are called in Facebook-land) and a critical mass of people to install it.

I believe I would reactivate my account just to partake in this. Turning the tables sounds fun. Mine the data of the data miners.

I am almost certain that FB would put a stop to it though, as hypocritical as it may be.

Yeah I don't even look at them anymore. They feel like they aren't targeted to me at all. I get adverts for tax rebates for uniformed workers (I work as a web developer which is listed on my profile) and 'Barclay's investment opportunities' despite having neither the time nor money at the moment to invest in anything.

i always rejoice when google shows me adds for tampoons or perfume, just because it shows that the add targeting stuff is not perfect.

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