'Facebook is not a small business friend,' a class action lawsuit reveals that Facebook was cheating on the accuracy of targeted advertising



Facebook is doing a big anti-Apple PR campaign saying that 'the changes Apple is trying to make to iOS will destroy small businesses,' but at the same time, a class action lawsuit from the small business side that should be defending I am also facing. An internal document has also been published showing that Facebook was hype in the proceedings, knowing that targeted advertising was inaccurate.

Facebook Managers Trash Their Own Ad Targeting in Unsealed Remarks

https://theintercept.com/2020/12/24/facebook-ad-targeting-small-business/

Starting in 2021, Apple plans to make a software update to ask users for permission to 'track users' when installing and using apps via the App Store, already in beta of iOS 14.4. A specification has been implemented that displays a pop-up to limit ad tracking. Existing Internet advertising is made possible by apps using third-party cookies to track user behavior and interests, so Apple's announcement has rocked the advertising industry and advertises most of its revenue. It is also expected to have a fatal impact on the Facebook gained from the business.

For this reason, Facebook launched a PR campaign in December 2020 stating that 'Apple will turn the Internet into a bad one' and 'small businesses will be seriously adversely affected.' We posted a full-page advertisement in a major newspaper.

Facebook puts a full-page ad in the newspaper saying 'Apple will turn the Internet into a bad one' --GIGAZINE



Facebook is also campaigning to show how small businesses are using Facebook ads to attract new customers and how important Facebook is to small businesses, while Facebook is by advertisers of such businesses. We are also facing a class action lawsuit . And internal documents revealed in the proceedings show that Facebook's targeted advertising was inaccurate and employees admitted it.

The proceedings were filed by a small business called Investor Village, which operates a bulletin board on financial topics. Investor Village used Facebook ads because it wanted to reach highly educated and high-income investors with limited resources. However, even though Facebook's targeted advertising should be able to fine-tune the target to display the advertisement, 40% of the people who displayed the advertisement do not have a bachelor's degree or earn less than $ 250,000 a year (about 26 million yen) It was either or both of them.

And from internal documents, it's clear that Facebook was aware that 'advertising capabilities are being exaggerated and are actually inadequate.' In February 2016, an anonymous Facebook manager sent an email to Facebook vice president Andrew Bosworth saying, 'Facebook's interest-selecting segment (interest) is only 41% accurate in the United States. , More than half of the people we display ads are people who don't expect the advertiser to be an audience. Internationally, the results are even worse. We are the advertiser's regarding the accuracy of interest. I don't feel that I'm meeting my expectations, 'he said.



In an email celebrating that targeted advertising revenue reached 18% of total advertising revenue, the manager said, 'The most popular option is a combination of'interest'and'behavior', and we're'behavior'. I know it's junk, but does that mislead advertisers? ' Investor Village claims that Facebook managers described important targeting data as 'junk' and admitted that its accuracy was problematic.

Facebook tried to curb the publication of the document because the citation of the internal document was out of context and the content was confidential and would cause damage if read by competitors, but the court claimed Was rejected.

Investor Village Attorney Stephen Moro said, 'Facebook is not a small business companion. Facebook is cheating on the accuracy of ads and disappointing employees, as detailed in the advertiser's allegations of class proceedings. I did. '

in Web Service, Posted by darkhorse_log