Facebook Ads

Believe it or not, facebook has a lot of ads that are around profile pages and various areas on the website. They are generally located on the right side of the web page and come in a series of three different ads every time the page is refreshed. The first three ads that popped up are about dating, IQ and making money and after I refreshed it, the three ads were about internships in NYC, NYU campus cash and threadless T-shirts. These ads seem to be relate to the people of my age range and their interests, young trendy clothes, job findings as well as NYU related activity. After looking through these ads it made me wonder if other students get the same type of ads, hence I asked a couple of my friends of what ads pop up when they're on facebook.

I asked two friends, one from seattle going to U of washington and the other from Hong Kong attending Polytechnic University in Hong Kong. My first friend reported that there were ads such as IQ testings as well, along with UW ads, anime, free macbooks, korean celebrities and order subway online. This search was facinating because my friend is a korean girl who is interested in anime. I was amazed that facebook would put ads up according to people's interest, and I was more facinated that facebook even knew what each person is interested in.

My second friend from Hong Kong told me the first three ads were in chinese and they were related to news in Hong Kong, dating in Hong Kong as well as IQ tests. Then there were ads about jobs, games and valentines.

Finding out about all these different ads and the difference between all of them really made me understand the concept of target market and that facebook incorporated that concept into it. From what I've seen, my hypothesis is that facebook puts ads targeting the overall age group and the typical topics of dating, IQ tests, finding out how smart you are etc... but then it also uses ads that would appeal more directly through understanding interests. My friend who was interested in anime, and the chinese ads that my friend saw as well. Sports ads and many other various ads are used and I believe it is not at a random that they were put on, but very strategic to attract the consumers.