How good at targeting is Facebook? From ads regarding shoes to the latest TV shows and their episodes, Facebook is serving up a ton of online ads. After their latest phase in ad targeting in November, it will be interesting to see how they continue to adapt their targeting, focusing on demographics and interests. Many feel Facebook will save the declining click through rates that have been falling for years. Many marketers are hoping that with the surge of social networks, and increased targeting the click through rate will surge right alongside the number of users and visits to these sites. Not everyone is happy with the increased targeting, but studies show that with more precise targeting the click through rates can increase from 30% to 300%. Some very confident marketers think that targeted ads will be the savior for all forms of digital advertising.
As an avid social networking site user, I try to offer up constructive criticism as opportunities arise, whether it be in the forums that are provided, sending feedback to support teams, completing surveys, or even indicating which ads on Facebook are annoying, irrelevant, or repetitive.
The question is, when you take the time to provide this feedback, is it really worth the time? I’ve probably clicked on over 250 ads on Facebook to dismiss them. Primarily, it is because they annoy me, especially when they are about dating sites or other marketing sites, given that is the service my company offers.
The problem is I don’t use dating sites, and I sell services for marketing through my own site, so neither of these are relevant or well “targeted” for me. And while I’d like to think that clicking the little x helps improve the targeting, it seems as though the answer to that question is no.
Even though Facebook’s ad targeting isn’t always accurate, there is a lot of potential for it to become very effective. Because of this a network similar to Ad-Sense could pay off huge for Facebook. And, if they could deliver this across multiple sites on th web, it would be very powerful.
