I like to think about the Facebook Ads program as an baby adwords. It has a ton of potential (just like adwords did when it launched), and looks like it will be one of the few “must buy online ads” (which probably only has 1 player currently – adwords, Goto then Overture and then Yahoo Search Marketing might have been in this list in the past but is not anymore).
That brings me to the post title; Something facebook ads needs to solve that google never had to.
First off, remember that 100% of facebook ads rely on something that facebook knows about the targeted users. From geography, to interest, to age etc – they have to run the magic formula using that data and post the (hopefully) targeted ads.
The Adwords search program is different where the ads are showing only showing when the user is actively pursuing the targeted keyword, and then the ad can only shown next to other links, ads etc and not have to worry about the ads showing next to anything other than some misspellings. Now i know that a large part of adwords is adsense where advertisers target contextually relevant content to show ads. While it makes alot more sense to compare facebook ads to adsense than the adwords search-only network — google is a “must ad buy” bec if a company is worried about where and how the ads will show up, then can opt out of the adsense network and still pay google a ton of money for web advertising. Facebook doesnt have that option and needs to figure it out.
The funny part, this apparently was something that plagued the myspace ad program that they subsequently fixed.
the post was prompted when i can across this article: Facebook warned to improve online advertising
here is the text from the article:
Advertising agencies have pointed out that marketing material is appearing in inappropriate places on the website.
The claim follows a news report from New Media Age that Tesco has stopped advertising on Facebook after its marketing material was found alongside groups which supported holocaust denial.
Commenting on the misplaced marketing, a Tesco spokesperson told the news provider: “It´s an extremely offensive group and we wouldn´t want to be associated with it.”
Guy Phillipson, chief executive officer of the Internet Advertising Bureau, said: “Facebook should take the lead from MySpace. It should have people or technology to ensure advertisers can exclude ads from offensive groups.”
Facebook said that it gives advertisers the tools to control where their marketing material appears and this includes the ability to exclude them from particular groups.
Meanwhile, according to Reuters, more than 200 million Facebook passwords have been stolen by phishers and spokesperson for the website Barry Schnitt said the company was in the process of cleaning up from the attack.
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Let me know what you think, pls weigh in with your thoughts in the comments.
~FBADS
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