Friday, September 16, 2016

Why Facebook advertising is a waste of money

Came across this smart writeup on how Facebook advertising waste advertisers' money. We knew this always, but the explanation is very good:

I once liked a dance company on Facebook because I know the person who made their website. Now I see adverts for dance productions. That's not advertising gold; that's a waste of advertising money.

I reckon most people's profiles are like this - a few likes or posts about something that you'd never actually buy and all that ad money is just thrown away. 90% of the adverts could be getting your profile wrong but simple confirmation bias makes us notice that 10% far more than the useless, poorly targeted adverts, so when advertisers survey people they get the impression their profiling is working. Or worse, the ad networks know that the profiling doesn't work but they carry on the myth in order to charge advertisers more.

I might well be wrong on this, but while I see adverts for things that have no appeal to me I'll keep suspecting profiling doesn't actually work.

Seems only internet marketing agencies and Ad networks, with their overpaid 'marketing experts' and their lesser-paid 'army of trolls' push the case for more FB advertising, polishing the turd masquerading as a golden egg (for some, maybe).


Also read: Can Adwords help sell ebooks? No.

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When will peak BJP come?

Peak Congress was probably its 2009 Loksabha elections win. Now it is BJP time, which plans to open 500 offices across the country and Modi says 'winning elections' is a 'national responsibility' (he said 'rashtriya kartavya', which sounds grand). Smart. Equating fortunes of a political party with what a nation must do.

Power nourishes hubris. A lot of it. We have seen Congress fail. We have seen the Left getting confused and stumbling. Now, it is BJP hubris time.

Again, one party claims to have all the right answers. People in BJP are aware of the noise they are making. Nitin Gadkari, a BJP minister, says Modi's achhe din slogan in 2014 is now a millstone, and that the Indian public will always be a 'dukhi atma'. Right.


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