Week 13 Part A: Online Advertising - Analysis of the Marketplace

             For Social Media Ads, including Facebook and Instagram, what draws my attention is the subject matter that I’m interested in. For example, I referee Paintball and I often look at new equipment people are currently using. Based on my interactions, paintball ads and sponsored posts will appear. I will look at this gear occasionally, and what gets my attention is the image and advertisement on gear that I have read about or looked at on the Internet. When doing google searches or looking at paintball websites, I notice that targeted Ads will appear on my Social Media channels. It seems that companies are using the data and my IP Address to target my Social Media with the products I may have an interest in. Generally, when clicking the links, it will open a new Window on my Facebook Mobile App and allow me to see the information. Facebook seems to want to keep you retained on their platform and allow you to view companies in a pop-up but stay on the Facebook platform.

Target Ads are useful for the gear I’m interested in, especially if they are offering alternatives that are the same at cheaper prices. These products and sponsored Ads show the cost-and effectiveness of the products and the functionality which catches my eye for products I’m interested in. Sometimes I’m doing research and receive Ads that I’m not really interested in or knock-off products that look like poor quality, those annoy me. Facebook also has an ignore adds setting to turn off adds which I will use when I get tired of being overloaded with products and sponsored Ads.

Social Media, such as Instagram and Facebook, allow you to access the entire world and is not limited to a specific distribution of people who purchased a subscription used in traditional advertising. Social media advertising can be done any many ways, and it is very cost effective to reach large audiences without limiting geology. For example, I may want to advertise Bees for Sale across much of the United States, I would not be able to do so by paying for advertising in a Newspaper, such as the Los Angeles Times. If you spend a little time on Social Media, you can connect with a large audience to sell and market your products. While traditional advertising may have some effectiveness in a Beekeeping Magazine as a target audience, you can be more effective by using Social Media and targeting those interested based on their demographics.

Facebook often markets general Ads which I’m not interested in. I’m not the target audience and it seems like they are simply trying to see who will respond, it’s almost like door-to-door sales simply hoping someone is interested in the service or product. I noticed that ads, on Facebook, YouTube Twitter, are sometimes annoying because they show up after any item you search upon. I feel that using a VPN is sometimes necessary, so I don’t receive a ton of advertising based on my search engine inquiries. From a tracking perspective, I don’t like the fact that companies associate your searches with you, I feel that privacy is an issue. Companies can know too much information about your interests which often feels very invasive.