Advertising on Facebook
Advertising on Facebook is a chance for businesses and groups to appear in users’ news feeds on Facebook desktop and mobile apps. Advertising was integrated into Facebook’s platform in 2008 as a way to monetize the platform and create profit. As a result, Facebook turned cash flow positive for the first time in 2009. Advertising continues to be the main source of revenue for Facebook earning them US$16.6 billion in profit as of 2019. [1] Facebook’s advertising platform has developed to be a prominent part of Facebook’s information sharing platform. As it continues to develop, issues of invasion and misinformation have risen.
Contents
Structure
Ads are shown to users based on their activity across Facebook companies and products such as: pages a user and their friends like, information from users Facebook and Instagram profile, and places users check in using Facebook.
Ad Matching
Facebook displays ads to users based on certain matching criteria to maintain relevancy of the ads to users.
Activity with other businesses
Facebook takes into account users’ activity with other businesses. When users share information with a business, that business can add it to a customer list—a list of current or potential customers that an advertiser uploads to Facebook. [2] Facebook does not learn new identifying information about users when lists are uploaded. The information on the list is hashed. The hashed IDs from the list are then matched against Facebook’s existing list of users. The identity of users is not revealed during the matching process. [3]
Activity on other websites and apps
Websites and apps users visit send Facebook data directly using The Facebook Business Tools. [2]
Location
Facebook uses location data to show users ads from advertisers trying to reach people in or near a specific place. This information is collected based on where users connect to the internet, where users use their phone, and users’ location from Facebook products. [2]
Managing ad preferences
Directly
Facebook users can control the ads they see. From an ad directly, users can hide the ad or all ads from the advertiser. Facebook allows users to report ads directly. “Why am I see thing?” gives more context on why users are seeing the displayed ads.
Ad preferences in settings
Each user as an ad preferences page to manage their ad settings. Users can manage the following:
Interests
Interests displays Facebook’s perceived interests about a user. It is determined based on users’ engagement with certain pages and ads. Categories include:
- news and entertainment
- business and industry
- travel, places and events; food and drink
- hobbies and activities
- shopping and fashion
- sports and outdoors
- people
- technology
- fitness and wellness
- education
- family and relationships
- lifestyle and culture
- removed interests.
Advertisers and businesses
Advertisers and businesses display the businesses a user has interacted with, businesses users have visited, ads users have clicked, and ads users have hidden. Users can hide, unhide and report ads from businesses displayed in this section.
Your information
“Your information” is for Facebook users to control if Facebook can display ads based on their profile fields and category.
Ad setting
Users can determine if Facebook can display ads based on users’ activity from Facebook Company Products, on Facebook Company Products, and social actions under “Ad settings”.
Hide ad topics
Facebook allows users to hide ads about certain topics ether temporarily or permanently. Topics include alcohol, parenting, and pets. Here, users can suggest other sensitive ad topics.
Revenue from advertisers
Most of Facebook’s revenue comes from advertising. One analysis of 2017 data determined Facebook earns US$20.21 per user from advertising. [4] Active advertisers are advertisers that have advertised on the Facebook platform in the last 28 days. Prices for advertising follow a variable pricing model based on ad auction bids, potential engagement levels of the advertisement itself. targeting of advertisements is one of the chief merits of advertising visa a vis traditional mass advertising mode like television and print. Marketing on Facebook is employed through two methods based on the surfing habits, likes and shares, and purchasing data of the audience, namely targeted audiences and "look alike" audiences. [5]
Criticism
Sensitive interests
Facebook allows advertisers to target users based on sensitive interests. Sensitive interests include political beliefs, sexuality and religion as marked by the European data protection law. Page text.[6] The joint investigation found Facebook’s platform had made sensitive inferences about users — allowing advertisers to target people based on inferred interests including communism, social democrats, Hinduism and Christianity. All of which would be classed as sensitive personal data under EU rules. The criticism comes from Facebook not asking users if they consent to being categorized by sensitive labels. Facebook argues otherwise, of course — claiming that the information it gathers about people’s affinities/interests, even when they entail sensitive categories of information such as sexuality and religion, is not personal data.
Sensitive topics
Parenting
In 2018, Gillian Brockell wrote an open letter to Facebook about her continued experience of receiving pregnancy-related ads on Facebook after the stillbirth of her son. “Please, Tech Companies,” she wrote. “If you’re smart enough to realize that I’m pregnant, that I’ve given birth, then surely you’re smart enough to realize that my baby died, and can advertise to me accordingly, or maybe, just maybe, not at all.” Facebook’s vice-president of advertising Rob Goldman responded to Brockell by pointing out Facebook’s ad-preference settings. After Brockell did this, she began receiving unwarranted ads for adoption agencies. This incident has called criticism towards Facebook’s unethical and male-centric culture. Page text.[7]
Pharmaceuticals
Facebook’s use of pharmaceutical ads has been criticized for invading on users’ private medical concerns. People have accused Facebook’s guidelines for being too weak which has allowed drug companies to expose loopholes around the way data can be used to show consumers relevant ads about their personal health, even as both social networks and pharmaceutical manufacturers disavow targeting ads to people based on their medical conditions. Page text.[8]
Political campaigns
Despite pressure from Congress, Facebook continues to allow political campaigns to use the site to target advertisements to particular slices of the electorate and that it would not police the truthfulness of the messages sent out. This issue has raised questions regarding how a company could decide the types of political content users will see. Facebook’s director of product management claimed, “we have based ours on the principle that people should be able to hear from those who wish to lead them, warts and all, and that what they say should be scrutinized and debated in public.” Their policy regarding political advertisements have been met with mixed reviews. Critics view their weak policing policy as a way to encourage the spread of misinformation and fake news. While supporters of the policy believe it keeps a valuable tool for information unrestricted.[9]- ↑ [1], "Facebook beats Q3 2019 revenue and profit estimates despite regulator scrutiny".
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 [2], About Facebook Ads.
- ↑ [3], Facebook: Advertising Privacy.
- ↑ [4], "Too big not to fail".
- ↑ [ "Complete interview with Brad Parscale and the Trump marketing strategy". ], PBS Frontline.
- ↑ [5], TechCrunch.
- ↑ [6], Market Watch.
- ↑ [7], Washington Post.
- ↑ [8],New York Times.
