Re:Testimony of Mark Zuckerberg – Hearing Before US House of...
by jsgo on Monday April 09, 2018 @01:00PM
(#16794774)
I probably didn't specify "they" well in "they obviously don't handle it particularly well", but meant it as Facebook, sorry.
Of course, there may be controls the user has when creating ads that may've been messed up, I'm not sure, but I honestly only recall a few ads that were in my area so that I could, if inclined, act on them. The vast majority? The only way it would work is if they sold me on their platform so hard that I sold my house and bought into their district in their state.
I think that's a Facebook targeting problem, not a problem with the people buying the ads.
Somehow Facebook has no idea where I am, and I get local ads for all kinds for businesses in random cities to which I've never been.
There's also the concept of extended targeting. For example, as an advertiser, you run Los Angeles ads in Palm Springs because there's a lot of people who live in or frequently visit Palm Springs who also have homes/businesses in Los Angeles. Ditto to LA-Las Vegas, SFO-Reno, Chicagoland-Wisconsin, Minneapolis-Southern Manitoba/Western Ontario, Houston-Austin, San Antonio-Padre, Cincinnati-Carolinas, etc...