Facebook
Inc. is planning to use user profile data to target ads around the Web,
but it won't share names and personal details of users with those
advertisers, Chief Operating Officer Sheryl Sandberg said Monday.
Sandberg said Facebook users are less concerned about privacy than the
kinds of ads in their news feeds.
“The No. 1 thing Facebook users said when we asked about
ads,” Sandberg said, was not privacy but “relevance.” While seeing a
movie that doesn’t fit your tastes might be a “terrible experience” for a
Facebook user, one that's personalized based on
your tastes would be
much more engaging.
Sandberg spoke at the International Advertising Bureau's MIXX conference Monday, the day the company officially unveiled its plans to use its Atlas ad server to
target ads across the Web, much like it already does on mobile devices.
Facebook calls the initiative "people-based marketing," a departure
from more anonymous targeting of Web browsers.
Atlas, which Facebook bought from Microsoft in 2013, is
“about getting the right message to the right person at the right time”
and “giving marketers real results,” for use both online and in the real
world, Sandberg said. Mass-market advertising that retains a
“personalized” marketing experience on a large scale is the most
challenging aspect of advertising, she said. Facebook will allow
marketers to use Atlas to measure and verify how extensively their ads
are being viewed and clicked on by users.
Sandberg alluded to the social network’s reach, at more
than 1.2 billion monthly users, saying Facebook can do both mass-market
and personalized advertising. “We can make it personal because it’s
coming to your phone, and just like your content is personal … your ads
can be as well,” she said.
Privacy issues
When asked about how Facebook was handling the privacy issues raised
by its personalized, targeted advertising, Sandberg said the company
had a two-fold approach. The first was ensuring users’ names or personal
data was not shared with marketers -- only preferences and tastes,
which would not be connected to profiles or names. The second solution,
Sandberg said, was offering users the ability to “opt-out” of seeing
personalized ads.
Sandberg was asked about recent reports regarding
Facebook’s use by governments to find and oppress its users. A recent
policy change that forces users to use their real names is being
criticized, partly for its impact on the gay, lesbian and transgender
community, and especially in countries where sexuality is criminalized.
The policy reportedly has some users moving from Facebook
to Ello to have a more anonymous profile. Sandberg said Facebook's Pages
already allow users to create an anonymous presence. Sandberg said
users could create a page, instead of a user profile, where identity can
be withheld from other Facebook users as well as government watchdogs.
“If you live [under] an oppressive government, you have to
choose what you post,” Sandberg said. “You can set up a page and say bad
things anonymously about your government on that page. ... A lot of
what happened during the Arab Spring was done on these pages. People who
want to do it, can.”
Moving to mobile
In the exploding use of smartphones instead of traditional
computers over the last few years, Facebook’s most important initiative
was shifting from a “desktop company” to one that offers a strong mobile
experience. While 2 1/2 years ago, Facebook had no mobile ads at all,
it has turned the platform into a greater success than its desktop site.
“We get one in seven minutes [of a person’s total usage time] on the desktop. We get one in five on mobile,” Sandberg said.
Facebook’s video advertisements are “exploding,” with more
than 1 billion views to date, she said. The ads exist in News Feed,
Facebook’s most visible feature, and they can easily be scrolled past.
If a user stops to look at an autoplay video ad, it will start to play,
but it only provides sound after it is clicked.
The ease with which a Facebook user can “scroll past” and
completely ignore video ads forces marketing companies to ensure their
ads are engaging, Sandberg said.
Facebook Creative Network, the company’s solution, is an
in-house marketing initiative capable of quickly creating videos that
are both creative and timely, Sandberg said. For instance, during the
World Cup soccer tournament, Facebook worked with the McDonald's Corp.
for a campaign where the company’s french fries were used to recreate
the most interesting play of the day.
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