Facebook Testing Instant Ads Based On Status Updates, Wall Posts

A Facebook spokesperson has confirmed that the social networking site is testing a new ad system that uses user-created content, such as status updates, to present advertisement that is more closely targeted to users' interests and presented more instantaneously.

"Advertising on Facebook is more relevant for people because they have explicitly stated their interest in things," a spokesperson for Facebook told the Huffington Post. "We are currently testing a feature that simply helps surface relevant advertising more quickly."

AdAge reported earlier this week that Facebook had started to test mining user-created content to drive ad targeting for 1 percent of users--or 6 million people.

Though Facebook already delivers targeted ads based on wall posts, status updates, and other user data, the new ad feature would present the ads closer to real-time than before.

Rather than relying on collected information and matching by keywords after the fact, using real-time data will let Facebook take a status update like, "Man, am I jonesing for some quality denim" to show you a Levi's ad. The process of targeting user created information to relevant ads, therefore, would become more immediate.

According to AdAge, the point of the testing is to see if targeted ads "can be served at split-second speed, as soon as the user makes a statement that is a match for an ad in the system."

eMarketer estimates Facebook ad revenue will pass $2 billion this year.

Comments

[single malt]

01:00 PM on 03/27/2011

Do you think if I say I am looking for a wife they will show me a mail order bride offer?

[dtallwalk]

09:05 PM on 03/26/2011

I remember when Cable came out in the 70’s one of the driving forces why you should get cable
Was no commercial interruptions. And slowly over time they became more and more intrusive. To the point Now you watch a 2 hour movie with 30 minutes of commercials. It makes watching a movie
A pain. Thank God for DVR. But that’s the way we live now days. These advertisers offer so much
Money to these guys after a while it becomes impossible to resist. So sites like these fall victim to
Advertisers and there money. And as consumers have to live with the ads. Let just hope the
Technology to block the stuff keeps up. what we really need is a DVR machine for Face book.

[Melissa Robertson]

05:05 PM on 03/26/2011

I have noticed Facebook Ads based on pages that I've liked, and that was ok until the ads had nothing in common with my liked pages and were just using the name to get my attention. This just seems a little too personal to me. I guess they think that if the ads have something to do with what you're already talking about then they'll be less annoying. I'll still ignore them anyway.

[Clare53]

10:37 PM on 03/25/2011

FB just gets creepier and creepier.

[nohup]

05:10 PM on 03/25/2011

AdBlock + Ghostery is a good combination, especially on Facebook.

[JSN59]

01:12 PM on 03/25/2011

"Ad Blocker Plus"... I put it on my Firefox browser early on and I must say that I NEVER see ads on FaceBook (unless I happen to check in at the Library)... Surely anyone irritated by advertizing as I am, can avail themselves of such plug-ins and increase the quality of their FB time.

[Gymmie]

12:21 PM on 03/25/2011

Yup I ignore the ads.

I haven't seen any 10 second ones Renee that's interesting.

novodia9--I've never had pop ups with Yahoo?

[SuperBenFranklin]

07:56 AM on 03/25/2011

Facebook succeeds in making ads even more annoying.

[cowboymiketex]

10:48 AM on 03/25/2011

Personally, ads that are intrusive, I go out of my way NOT to buy anything from them.

[novodia9]

07:23 PM on 03/24/2011

it sucks, it's just like those pop ups!
slows down the computer and nothing more,
right now I would just like to log into my yahoo account without pop ups, and i would like to do the same with facebook, but sheesh.
Somebody's gonna do to Facebook, what they did to Google if they don't consider their users before the ad dollar.

[Renee Croft Wates]

06:50 PM on 03/24/2011

The ads on Facebook drive me nuts as it is. If you were to ask me what was advertised on the pages I've looked at today I couldn't tell you. I consciously ignore them. In fact, if they're the 10 second ones i look around the room instead. Anything is better than those.

[LangstonA]

06:34 PM on 03/24/2011

Okay, this would be cool if I could type "Where is the cheap gasoline?" in my facebook status and get advertisements showing me gas stations within a two mile radius of my location and the price of unleaded for each station.

[MikeyJaii]

05:27 PM on 03/24/2011

Oh my god ... I freaking hate ADs............

[thedisassociation]

01:02 PM on 03/27/2011

Get AdBlock for your browser. I never see ads. It's always a shock to me when I use a browser without it.