Behavioral Ad Targeting: The Future of Facebook and Myspace Advertising

I read an article this morning from Adweek, entitled: Social Network Ads: Too Close, Too Personal? (Bryan Morrissey, November 5, 2007) about how MySpace and Facebook are using hyper targeted ads for users based on information mined from their profiles. I also recently attended a presentation by Facebook Vice President of Media Sales, Mike Murphy, at the AAAA’s Account Planning conference in San Diego (August 2007) in which Murphy discussed this very subject.

As an account planner, I am truly excited about the opportunity to not only learn more about consumers and what motivates them, but to also find ways to deliver messages that will connect with consumers. The executives at both Facebook and MySpace have it right – this changes everything.

An advertising message must do two things to be successful.

1. The message must be relevant to and connect emotionally with consumers.
2. The message must be seen by the consumers in which it is trying to connect.

This new technology gets us closer to the second point. By targeting users’ based on their profile information, we can get a whole lot better at providing ads that are truly relevant. Making sure the message connects emotionally to consumers is on the shoulders of the agency.

Although consumers might not want to admit it, there is a benefit to them too. By targeting advertising messages to users’ profiles, advertisers will be able to provide relevant messages (based on consumer insights) that they might actually want to see. As the article states, some of these ads are already receiving click-through rates of over 10% – further proof that consumers are clicking on ads that interest them.

While the media accurately portrays that there are opposing sides to the story, they often prefer to discuss the privacy (or anti-privacy) side of the story.

So, is this new technology a violation of users’ privacy?

It’s a very good question, and one that I’m sure will be disputed for a very long time. I’m a little biased, being an account planner, but I don’t agree with complaints about privacy violations. First of all, I’m constantly reading blogs and user postings to mine for insights on various issues anyway. Second, if the whole world can see your MySpace profile or your blog post, you aren’t exactly exhibiting a concern for real privacy to begin with.

As account planners, we are constantly trying to find ways to glean insights and reach into the hearts and minds of consumers – all in the name of better advertising. As technology continues to evolve, we will continue to find new ways to target consumers and mine insights from them.