Comments on: Happy New Year Facebook – your employees think you’re lying about advertising. And they may have a point

By: Brands and the problem of people « The Seldom Seen Kid

Brands and the problem of people « The Seldom Seen Kid — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 00:11:51 +0000

[...] at the turn of this year, with Facebook’s own staff changing a page to have a dig at their employer’s use of advertising. Tesco, Waitrose and Sainsbury’s have also had to contend with unruly employees bad-mouthing [...]

By: Facebook’s ad page was not hacked, it’s a suggestion from a user

Facebook’s ad page was not hacked, it’s a suggestion from a user — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 16:16:42 +0000

[...] Monday we reported on how Facebook appeared to have been hacked. For a short time the Facebook Advertising page had [...]

By: Matt

Matt — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 13:28:03 +0000

The main problem which Facebook has in generating decent quality advertisements is that its users are not in a transactional frame of mind.

Because people aren’t about to purchase something they don’t click on adverts.

By: wasaweblog

wasaweblog — Wed, 07 Jan 2009 11:00:04 +0000

I never understood why Facebook cannot target its advertisements better: it has more personal information about its users than most other sites. It knows users’ age, location, interests (groups), education and professional contacts (networks), among others, all voluntarily offered by the users. I suppose Facebook doesn’t know what its users have bought previously, but it holds a lot of data that other companies woud dearly like to be in possession. The advetisements seem to be shown in what it considers the local language(s) whichever the language the user chooses to set as default. In Brussels, the language of the advertisements oscillate between French and Flemish/Dutch.

By: Stephanie Booth

Stephanie Booth — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 10:17:37 +0000

We poor Swiss people from the French-speaking area keep getting ads in German (http://climbtothestars.org/archives/2007/03/04/not-all-switzerland-speaks-german-dammit/) — I have my FB language set to English, btw.

By: Eric

Eric — Tue, 06 Jan 2009 05:22:49 +0000

Your right. Everything in the yellow spot is equally shifted. The blue border below and the flag icon to the right also show the shift. Why would a capture tool do that?

By: Nick O'Neill

Nick O'Neill — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 21:48:04 +0000

I’ll update the post if this is indeed accurate. The screenshot looked kind of suspicious though. The one you just linked to though is at least aligned properly.

By: Luke

Luke — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 20:18:31 +0000

Eric, the image isn’t a hoax.

If you look here, someone else captured it:
http://socialmediocrity.com/2009/01/05/lying-on-facebook/

The reason that image looks like that is because of the use of FastCapture screengrabber which – when you highlight something in its editor – slightly shifts the highlight out of line.

This comment was posted on the blog you cited, but they are yet to moderate it.

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:38:42 +0000

I guess that doesn’t show. Here’s the article:

http://www.allfacebook.com/2009/01/disgruntled-facebook-employee-probably-not/

By: Eric

Eric — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 19:37:16 +0000

Hoax. This image is a hoax, and a poor one at that. Who ever sent it in should have used firebug or something rather than an image editor. If you look that “lying” link, it’s aligned lower than the rest of the links.

Allfacebook has an image showing the alignment. I posted the article as my website.

By: Disgruntled Facebook Employee? Probably Not.

Disgruntled Facebook Employee? Probably Not. — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 17:12:45 +0000

[...] prank reportedly pulled by a disgruntled Facebook employee got the attention of TechCrunch UK writer Mike Butcher. When he was tipped off that someone working at Facebook had hacked the [...]

By: Beejamin

Beejamin — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:44:35 +0000

A little bit of Stylish, plus a sprinkle of firebug for when they change ad structures, and you need never see an ad in Facebook, or nearly any other popular sit, again!

By: Darren Pearce

Darren Pearce — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:38:49 +0000

It’s the age old problem for the big networks – people go to them to socialise, not spend time looking at adverts.

As we enter what is going to be a very harsh period for ad spending, these big sites will have their business models and funding requirements tested to the limit as companies only look to advertise on tried & tested media outlets, whether on or offline.

I would not rule out a few casualties that are heavily geared towards venture funding and where the cash burn does not match the revenue stream.

By: Justin Souter

Justin Souter — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:20:54 +0000

It’s not just Facebook, it’s Google as well – cf my tweet:

“Googling ‘marin demo day uk’ on my BB Bold, at bottom of results is “Ad] – Find a Local Shag – See whos up for it – 84527.co.uk” -Er, not me…”

Shurely shome mishtake if I’m looking up mountain biking demos…

By: Steve Pole

Steve Pole — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 13:16:56 +0000

I’d argue the bad targeting isn’t all Facebook’s fault, you actually have great tools to target but advertisers either choose, or don’t know how to use them.

Targeting for ‘Norway’ isn’t targeting at all, try using keywords to identify your audience. The keyword targeting can be based on group membership so in effect you can advertise to group members. At http://www.techlighenment.com we reguarly outperform Google promoting the same content.

Finally, low CTRs aren’t a problem for advertisers buying on a CPC basis! Low CTRs mean you get more impressions per click. A problem for Facebook? Yes. A problem for advertisers? Not at all.

By: Chris Wright (Shinerweb)

Chris Wright (Shinerweb) — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:45:05 +0000

I’ve hardly ever seen anything else other than Credit Reports, Casino or Dating Sites.

So much for contextual advertising eh? Profile says, “Married, with kids” etc, and they stick a bloody great ‘Join our dating site’ type advert on the page.

But with the help of Firefox and a few trusty plugins, I don’t see much advertising on Facebook now. (I don’t see advertising on most sites to be honest).

And conversion rates on Facebook are pants, so I wouldn’t ever use them again. (I probably targeted all those other people blocking advertising though)

By: Sam Daams

Sam Daams — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:37:42 +0000

Wow, that’s something. I guess you trust the person sending you the screenshot and/or have verified that it wasn’t photoshopped? As an advertiser on FB, I’ve seen mixed results. Targetting for Norway specifically gets what appears to be pretty targetted click throughs, but conversions so far don’t match other channels.

By: Peter C

Peter C — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:31:06 +0000

I used FaceBook ads to advertise a “simply happy news” blog – the click return was truely awful.
I got free advert credit ($50 I believe) from VISA and I felt ripped off..

Stumbleupon appears to be the semi “unknown” king of good returns for online ads.

oh, and Facebooks ad manager appears to be down now.

By: Ian Hendry

Ian Hendry — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:28:07 +0000

You mean there’s advertising on Facebook? I think only you and Jemima have noticed.

Most people are on Facebook to network with friends and they are as receptive to being sold to as they would be if their group in a bar was infiltrated by sales people…

I just can’t see banner advertising working at this level on Facebook. But how about sponsorship of Facebook Groups with relevant suppliers to the special interest, for example?

Incidentally, the switch to “Lying” brings me a greater concern: if Facebook’s systems are so easy to hack, just how safe is our personal data?

Ian Hendry
CEO, WeCanDo.BIZ
http://www.wecando.biz

By: Mike Butcher

Mike Butcher — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:18:32 +0000

If it’s an inventory problem, and Facebook is all about attention marketing, then does it serve their brand and service to show me crap ads? Maybe they should hang back and wait until they can serve me something with more relevancy? I would argue that the impact of really bad advertising on a ‘high attention’ site like Facebook is much more detrimental than on a media site like a newspaper’s.

By: Simon

Simon — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 12:14:37 +0000

It’s an inventory problem Mike. When there’s nothing to advertise you with accurately, you get what’s left, namely, Credit Rating Reports.