I got some feedback from friends on this post I did on Wednesday. It turns out that Facebook is using our profiles to divide us into different groups and show us ads accordingly. For example: they would show me the “workout” ads while showing someone else “skin cream” or “Viagra” depending their age or gender. Also, I would get ads on “LA clubs” while someone else might be shown “Free drinks in SF”.
Here are my problems with this approach:
1) They keep forgetting, as media platforms, that the ads are part of their products, and they should be looking extremely hard to increase value in them. Running everything and anything the advertisers throw at them just isn’t the solution. Designing a great product is about refusing all but the most crucial functions.
2) As one of my friends pointed out, sometimes the ads could be offensive. If I am a 60 year old male, the last thing I would like to be reminded is that I might need Viagra anytime soon.
3) Also, it seems that they are slow on the updates. If I change my network to “Silicon Valley” from “The Great LA Area”, the ads won’t follow. Now this isn’t really a big deal except it’s showing me that they don’t really care. They are merely a computer program/platform that’s updated weekly(?) and looking to make a quick buck.
The bottom line is that we spend the same amount of effort on poor ads as we do on the great ones. But at the end of the day, do we have enough courage to refuse bad designs by people who are paying us, in exchange for our customers’ satisfaction?
If your customers aren’t happy, then you are not doing enough. Simple as that.
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