Facebook's Product is Too Killer
Facebook is Too Good at Targeted Ads
This weekend, an article by Wired came out with the headline "Facebook's Ad System Might be Hard-Coded for Discrimination." It basically claims that Facebook's algorithm will subtly discriminate regardless of whether the advertiser chooses to or not. Here's an excerpt:
"In another portion of the study, the researchers tried to determine whether Facebook automatically scans the images associated with ads to help decide who should see them. They ran a series of ads with stereotypical male and female stock imagery, like a football and a picture of a perfume bottle, using identical wording. They then ran corresponding ads with the same images, except the photos were made invisible to the human eye. Machine learning systems could still detect the data in the photos, but to Facebook users they looked like white squares. The researchers found that the “male” and “female” ads were shown to gendered audiences, even when their images were blank. In one test, both the visible and invisible male images reached an audience that was 60 percent male, while the audience of the visible and invisible female ones was 65 percent female. The results indicate that Facebook is preemptively analyzing advertisements to determine who should see them, and is making those decisions using gender stereotypes."
It's a hard-hitting article, but it also is a bit of a compliment to Facebook.
Look at it this way. Facebook makes money through ads (queue Mark Zuckerberg's famous response in Congress, "Senator, we run ads.") I've written about this before, so please allow me humbly quote myself:
"90% of Facebook's revenues come from advertisers. Advertising is the heart and soul of Facebook (at least financially), but this core competency is being seriously threatened by increased legal scrutiny by governments. For an advertiser, the entire point of running a Facebook ad is to be able to reach targeted audiences that spend time on Facebook's platforms. The keyword here is targeted. Why do companies throw vast sums of money at Facebook (and Instagram) ads? The reason that Facebook is such a compelling platform for advertisers is twofold: first, it provides access to over a billion of people, and second (more importantly), it allows advertisers to effectively differentiate across that vast population in order to get ads in front of the right audience. Facebook makes its money almost exclusively from allowing advertisers to find specific audiences."
The entire value proposition of Facebook is to help advertisers target people in the hopes that the ads will reach the right people who will hopefully click on the ad and eventually become paying customers or users for the advertiser.
What this Wired article and its accompanying study show is that Facebook is so good at getting the ads to the right people that even when the advertiser makes a mistake or a suboptimal targeting choice, the Facebook algorithm can automatically adjust to deliver the ad to a more optimal audience. Obviously, the female stock imagery in the study would work better if it were targeted toward females, and the same is true for the male stock imagery with males. Females are simply going to spend more money on perfumes than males will. Facebook recognizes that, and its ad algorithm will act appropriately. In this way, Facebook can be seen as being so diligent in providing its extraordinary service that it's willing to double check advertisement requests to make sure that better outcomes will be generated for the advertisers (usually these outcomes are higher customer acquisition rates through the ad) — in the study's example of gendered images, Facebook's algorithm's adjustment probably would lead to more perfume sales for the advertiser. Frankly, his is customer service at the next level. And it's a testament to the high level of sophistication of Facebook's algorithms.
In other words, the headline of "Facebook's Ad System Might be Hard-Coded for Discrimination" can be restated as "Facebook's Ad System Might be Hard-Coded for Better Targeting Services for Advertisers." Hard-coded for service and success.
This weekend, an article by Wired came out with the headline "Facebook's Ad System Might be Hard-Coded for Discrimination." It basically claims that Facebook's algorithm will subtly discriminate regardless of whether the advertiser chooses to or not. Here's an excerpt:
"In another portion of the study, the researchers tried to determine whether Facebook automatically scans the images associated with ads to help decide who should see them. They ran a series of ads with stereotypical male and female stock imagery, like a football and a picture of a perfume bottle, using identical wording. They then ran corresponding ads with the same images, except the photos were made invisible to the human eye. Machine learning systems could still detect the data in the photos, but to Facebook users they looked like white squares. The researchers found that the “male” and “female” ads were shown to gendered audiences, even when their images were blank. In one test, both the visible and invisible male images reached an audience that was 60 percent male, while the audience of the visible and invisible female ones was 65 percent female. The results indicate that Facebook is preemptively analyzing advertisements to determine who should see them, and is making those decisions using gender stereotypes."
It's a hard-hitting article, but it also is a bit of a compliment to Facebook.
Look at it this way. Facebook makes money through ads (queue Mark Zuckerberg's famous response in Congress, "Senator, we run ads.") I've written about this before, so please allow me humbly quote myself:
"90% of Facebook's revenues come from advertisers. Advertising is the heart and soul of Facebook (at least financially), but this core competency is being seriously threatened by increased legal scrutiny by governments. For an advertiser, the entire point of running a Facebook ad is to be able to reach targeted audiences that spend time on Facebook's platforms. The keyword here is targeted. Why do companies throw vast sums of money at Facebook (and Instagram) ads? The reason that Facebook is such a compelling platform for advertisers is twofold: first, it provides access to over a billion of people, and second (more importantly), it allows advertisers to effectively differentiate across that vast population in order to get ads in front of the right audience. Facebook makes its money almost exclusively from allowing advertisers to find specific audiences."
The entire value proposition of Facebook is to help advertisers target people in the hopes that the ads will reach the right people who will hopefully click on the ad and eventually become paying customers or users for the advertiser.
What this Wired article and its accompanying study show is that Facebook is so good at getting the ads to the right people that even when the advertiser makes a mistake or a suboptimal targeting choice, the Facebook algorithm can automatically adjust to deliver the ad to a more optimal audience. Obviously, the female stock imagery in the study would work better if it were targeted toward females, and the same is true for the male stock imagery with males. Females are simply going to spend more money on perfumes than males will. Facebook recognizes that, and its ad algorithm will act appropriately. In this way, Facebook can be seen as being so diligent in providing its extraordinary service that it's willing to double check advertisement requests to make sure that better outcomes will be generated for the advertisers (usually these outcomes are higher customer acquisition rates through the ad) — in the study's example of gendered images, Facebook's algorithm's adjustment probably would lead to more perfume sales for the advertiser. Frankly, his is customer service at the next level. And it's a testament to the high level of sophistication of Facebook's algorithms.
In other words, the headline of "Facebook's Ad System Might be Hard-Coded for Discrimination" can be restated as "Facebook's Ad System Might be Hard-Coded for Better Targeting Services for Advertisers." Hard-coded for service and success.
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| He runs ads, and he's really good at running them. |
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