One advertising feature that many of us here at Overdrive have been expecting to see pop up on Facebook, has recently been tested. The feature we are referring to is targeted advertisements; based on status updates and wall posts published by users.
Typically, on the right hand side of your Facebook profile, “Sponsored” ads will appear based on the user’s likes and interests.
With this new form of advertising, instead of “Sponsored” ads, the ads will be titled “Related Adverts.” Related Adverts will be ads which are composed based on words from the user’s status updates and wall posts. The example below illustrates this feature. Facebook is using the words “sun” and “play” from the wall post, to generate related ads and status updates on the right hand side of the Facebook profile. The Facebook displayed “Related Adverts” show music ads, based on the connection between “play” and music.
Information regarding exactly how these ads are generated is not yet clear. However, we can clearly see that targeting users based on status update content can be very beneficial. It will really target those who do not get very detailed in filling out their likes and interests in their profiles. With this feature, Facebook has the power to display advertisements regarding the information related to the current thoughts of a user, creating an amplified chance that the user will respond and be interested in those ads.
We are excited for Facebook to make improvements to this model and to fully roll out targeting status updates and wall posts to all users in the near future.
