I know I’ve been “going off” on Social Ads today but I’m very opinionated about the topic, so if you don’t care or don’t like it, feel free to come back later for a different post, but right now, I gotta get this out of my system.
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Here’s the premise of social advertising: I’m more likely to buy something that my friend likes.
Here’s the reality: I don’t care what you like. I care what I like. Just because I like YOU, doesn’t mean I care what YOU LIKE.
I may care what you like when I’m searching for things, but not when I’m socializing.
The biggest assumption of social advertising is that “friendship” implies value in purchasing decision. Two fallicies:
1) Most Facebook “friends” are not true IRL “friends,” they are connections. What Billy or Sarah from High School say about Coke vs Pepsi doesn’t influence me in the slightest, I haven’t seen them in 10 years and I’m not sure their cola preference has bearing on my world. I don’t care, and if you do I question your decision making processes.
2) Purchasing decisions are active. If I want to know what people think about something, I’ll either ask aloud, or direct my inquiry to the person who’s opinion on the matter is most valuable. Wisdom of the crowds is often a better gauge of the quality of products or services.
In isolation, yes, there are instances where someone’s opinion from my Facebook network would be valuable, but far less than would be valuable for the majority of advertisers.
Facebook needs to consider tying their ads to active processes rather than passive activities so that the ads is relevant to people at the point of need.
There…I’m done on this topic for the day.