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Facebook Ads Tailored Toward Users Often More Off-Putting Than Effective

by Caleb Johnson on March 4, 2010 at 05:35 PM

If you've been on Facebook lately, you've seen the advertisements lining the right side of the page. We usually don't pay them much attention, but every now and then, an ad pops up that catches our eye -- rarely for the right reason.

According to The New York Times, many companies are festooning Facebook with self-service ads, which promote products you might like by scanning the information you've put on Facebook. While custom-tailored ads might sound effective, some people say these do more harm than good. Tim Hanlon, a principal at Chicago consulting firm Riverview Lane Associates, told the Times, "When it works, it's amazingly impactful, but when it doesn't work, it's not only creepy but off-putting."

To illustrate these ads' function, let's consider a woman who changes her relationship status to "engaged." As a result, she could see ads for weight-loss products or skin-treatment systems -- not exactly a compliment. Recently, Facebook users who happened to be Eddie Izzard fans saw ads that claimed they could test and keep an iPad. The correlation is lost on us. An ad for the Plan B morning after pill presumptuously appeared on one girl's page. "What do I have on my Facebook page that would lead them to believe I would need that," Jess Walker asked the Times.

Dan Rose, vice president for business development at Facebook, says he expects the quality and effectiveness of ads to improve in the future. We sure hope so, because we're not interested in online real-estate classes, or finding out what our celebrity love child would look like. [From: The New York Times]

Tags: advertisement, advertising, facebook, marketing, socialnetworking, targetedadvertising, top, trends

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