Facebook Ad Transparency

Facebook made ad transparency open to the public in May 2018. The Ad Library is a searchable database of all ads that are currently running on Facebook and Instagram. The Ad Library allows anyone to see the ads that are being run by businesses, organizations, and individuals, as well as the targeting information that is being used to reach those ads.

The Ad Library was created in response to concerns about the use of social media for political advertising. In the lead-up to the 2016 US presidential election, there were concerns that foreign actors were using social media to spread misinformation and propaganda. The Ad Library was intended to help people understand who is paying for political ads on Facebook and Instagram, and how those ads are being targeted.

The Ad Library has been praised by some for its transparency, but it has also been criticized for its limitations. For example, the Ad Library does not include ads that are run by political campaigns, and it does not include ads that are run by foreign actors. Additionally, the Ad Library only includes ads that are currently running, so it does not include ads that have been run in the past.

Despite its limitations, the Ad Library is a valuable tool for understanding the use of social media for advertising. It is important for people to be aware of the ads that are being run on social media, and the Ad Library can help people to make informed decisions about the ads that they see.

Here is an example when searching on the keyword phrase "environmentally friendly sunscreen":

Example of ad in Facebook's Ad Library

Social Media Metrics for NonProfits - Facebook

It would appear that the only engagement lift this nonprofit association gets is when posts are promoted for recruitment or to get members and non-members to participate in an activity, and by promoted, I mean to say that we have to pay Facebook a scaled nominal fee each time we want to promote an event. The worthwhile metrics aren't tied to views, reach or engagements; but rather followers who become active, paid members; and subsequently those who renew their membership status year-over-year.

When I joined this professional association group at the start of the year, we had just over 1,500 followers. We now have roughly 1,890 followers; though no real data to benchmark how we are gaining or losing followers, e.g., as a result of event or new membership promotions.

Facebook's default report dashboard

Facebook's default report dashboard for latest posts

The table for engagement by latest posts pretty much tell you what common sense tells you. Compared to the total reach (number of followers), the individual posts have practically no traction with our members. And, the only times when we show some measure of reach is when we pay to promote certain event posts.

One thing to watch out for is how your whole community page or association page is setup on Facebook, because in the above example with the latest posts, you might be the administrator and manage access; but you won't have any access to detailed reports if you didn't setup the promotion yourself. Now, tell me Facebook, how is that sane?

A typical reporting error in Facebook. It begs the question,
why can't all admins see the same reports?

Bait and Switch

Southwest Airlines' March Facebook campaign is currently promoting $59 one-way flights. Except, I can't fly out from a major metro area to another major metro area for that price. And while $93/flight is a good price, it's not even close to the sweet FB deal. This is a good way to tick off customers who aren't loyal to the brand. What's worse is that the landing page that houses this offer has the cities in alphabetical order; a logical way to default sort it, but the flight prices are so not on "sale" for most one-way flights. I feel like I've been misled, again, by a deceptive sponsored ad.

The sponsored ad starts pretty well with all the right components in it that communicate brand, offer, and a call-to-action.

Sponsored Ad screenshot, 2013-03-08

And then, after the hook (click-through), the experience quickly nosedives into the ground.

Landing page mirrors the FB-pushed ad. Good right? Keep scrolling down...

You think you are going to get a good deal, until you can't actually find a deal for your metro area. Seattle, for example:

If Southwest had used regional ad targeting on FB,
I would not have been pitched this offer.
Maybe? One could only hope social media ad tech advances to this level.

Promote a post, only $7 on Facebook

Well, that was weird. I was just doing a shout-out to all my Seattle friends on Facebook and was notified that I could 'promote' the post.

Out of curiosity I clicked 'promote' and Facebook wants $7 for opportunity. Well, here's the thing. I don't represent the business that I'm promoting, just spreading the word about their special customer offer to other consumers.

Companies should be paying me to promote their posts; not the other way around. What do you think?

Cloud-based data can be interesting...

...especially when it's not mapped or indexed properly. Surely, someone wise in the ways of data at Facebook would have seen this one coming long before the feature got implemented. To get to this drop-down list, pick one of your friends that has a viewable Friends list, and then change the category selector to filter the list. It doesn't matter what category you choose (other than by Name), all other categories will result in the same un-targeted category results.

Example. A search by "hometown" yields these sample selections, where the match is based on any letter match, say "*a*" versus "a*". It makes a big world of difference to start the match based on criteria that comes after the first letter that a user keys in than what it is today, a match based on any placement in a phrase or word. See image below:

Facebook Places Enables Random Edits

This could be bad news for any company who wants to keep their online reputation clean and typo-free. It's interesting to note that Facebook doesn't have any means in place so that a company's site admin can monitor or reject recommended changes by random strangers. A competitor could log into Facebook and modify your Facebook Place page for the worse and no one would be the wiser, except you. Site settings have been like this for more than a year. But then, Facebook isn't interested in fixing petty details.

This is not to be confused with a Facebook company profile page, which appears to still be secure.