The Mysterious Case Of The Facebook Ad Bots

The Mysterious Case Of The Facebook Ad Bots

idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com

On Monday, the company posted a strikingly candid note on Facebook informing its followers that it would soon be deactivating its Facebook page due to two problems it encountered on the website: It discovered that a vast majority of the advertisements it was running on Facebook were being clicked on by bots — or automated computer programs, not real users. This is an issue because Facebook charges a company higher prices for advertising space based on the number of clicks a company’s ads receive.

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Is Facebook creating real profits from bot clicks on their Facebook ads? The company found that about 80 percent of their ad clicks were of the computer type not humans interacting with the ad.

I guess this one of the big things we don't think about much here online. Is that a person or a computer talking to us or did my website really get 40,000 hits yesterday?

I see this hurting Facebook and all online proxies who sell or depend on pay-per-click ads.

I really liked the suggestions from the hacker site about bots and how one could create a blacklist of bots which can not be blocked.





idealab.talkingpointsmemo.com (visit the link for the full news article)

This has been an on-going problem since the birth of PPC web ads. I've even been hired to create a traffic driving script, as well as an Alexa rank increasing script in the past.

It's a grossly over-priced advertising method normally and I would love to see it's end. However, that's not going to happen.

Originally posted by fnpmitchreturns

I see this hurting Facebook and all online proxies who sell or depend on pay-per-click ads.

I find this to be quite delicious. Is that wrong of me?

I guess this one of the big things we don't think about much here online. Is that a person or a computer talking to us or did my website really get 40,000 hits yesterday?

I think the point is that these bots randomly click on ads, not write posts. I've seen certain programs that can write posts but they just keep on saying the same sorts of things. I only specify this because the way you write "is that a person or a computer talking to us' asserts that you may believe these bots are capable of the same sort of intelligent conversation we have at ATS... though, depending on which topics you go to that may be more of a possibility.

I've had experience with PPC and ad campaigns before especially with Google Adwords (which I must add works very well for me).

I did try Facebook once and I thought it was great how you could really narrow down your audience to specific individuals in a lot more depth than Google.

The results though were awful. I converted around 1-80 with Google and converted 0-150+ with Facebook and blew ££50 within half an hour.

That was the first and last time I tried Facebook for advertising.

reply to post by MadmanInABox


No, I don't think they could give you anything but a sort of random argumentative or supportive post.

However if you look into the near future the will be artificial intelligence algorithms which could mimic thought.

Who pays attention to ads on the internet? Anyone?

You might as well put pictures of LOLCats....at least i would look at that. If there is an ad, i skim right past it.

I just don't get how advertising is such a big business?

So an organization founded by someone with a dog eat dog world view is starting to look smarmy? Shocking!

I'm not sure if this is the same thing,

I PAID facebook a small amount (around $15) for a small
Advertising campaign, within days I had something like 400 new 'likes' on my page.
I was shocked at the amount I got, UNTIL. Off my own back I PM'd one of the people that liked
my page just to ask where they saw the advertisement. - no reply.
So I made a generic Private message and tried not to sound spammy, just saying thanks a lot for
liking my page, you will never recieve PM's off me again yadda yadda can I just ask where you saw my Ad.
Out of around 300-400 PM's I sent.. Guess how many replies I got.. ZERO.

You would have thought for someone to like a page, then maybe receive a message 1 would say "hey, no problem, I saw it on the side of FB while searching"

No dice.

Just throwing this in here.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


It is to the people selling it obviously.

reply to post by Taggart




The internet is heading to a critical issue: it isn't marketable using current models. Ad revenue is not sustainable, because people don't enjoy looking at ads. So we will have a problem when our favorite sites (like ATS) start to see ad revenues slip because, to be honest, people are not on ATS to shop. if an ad pops up while i am here, i do what i can to look around it to find the content i am here for. And, to be realistic, those ads annoy me (and actually drive my business away from those places, as i begin to connect their brand with 'annoyance').

It is often said, and I am one who often says it, that if media wants to monetize the internet, they have only 2 options:

1. steal it from The People. As long as the internet is free, current marketing strategies will not work. Currently, marketing is about getting in your way, be obtrusive, and getting noticed. We know it annoys us...but it drives brand recognition in a market that is not really over run with options (to market nationally takes a lot of money, and to market locally you end up with fewer competitors). If they can "steal" the internet from us, they can force it into model that is more easily monetized. That is the day free speech dies.

2. Adapt. We have seen XBox make some money off of selling ad space within its online content. Dynamic ad space. For example, when you play a race game, the billboards in that game are advertising spaces available for rent. I recall seeing a few Obama ads in Need For Speed Carbon back in the last election cycle (i believe that was the game). Internet ad is going to require breakthrough thinking. Otherwise you will just see them continue to sink money into ad scams, like what Facebook does.

Now, don't be shocked by Facebook. This happens every where. I have a blog that will sometimes just explode with hits, randomly, on a random day. Yesterday was once such day. I had half my hits from from searches, etc. The other half, i cannot tell you. But my spam filter is full of spam bots. I think yesterday was a day when my site was crawled by bots, presumably by Wordpress or someone trying to increase page hits for whatever reason.

reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan


I agree with you, I wasn't debating from a pro-Advertisement stance, I was just saying it's mainly only big
business to those selling it. I gave a small story above with my spur of the moment "lets just see what happens" advertising campaign.

I'm sure they were just your thoughts in general on the matter and not mainly aimed at me.

I agree on all your points, I do not see adverts when online, I just do not see them, blanked out from years of browsing. Maybe there is a business model for those people who are using the internet for the first time.
We don't see adverts but we also don't fall for African lottery schemes and the like.

Any bets they are FB click bots.That makes them money. If not then it's someone trying to discredit the FB .ad system.

Originally posted by Taggart
reply to post by bigfatfurrytexan

 

I agree with you, I wasn't debating from a pro-Advertisement stance, I was just saying it's mainly only big
business to those selling it. I gave a small story above with my spur of the moment "lets just see what happens" advertising campaign.

I'm sure they were just your thoughts in general on the matter and not mainly aimed at me.

I agree on all your points, I do not see adverts when online, I just do not see them, blanked out from years of browsing. Maybe there is a business model for those people who are using the internet for the first time.
We don't see adverts but we also don't fall for African lottery schemes and the like.

I think one way we see advertising actually evolving is more and more of an old standbye: using a "news" story about one thing, with the hopes of driving business For example, the recent thread about how the seats are so empty at the Olympics. That is meant solely to drive ticket sales. Why would a news org run this "story"? Because these news orgs are dependant on the Olympic media orgy to create revenue. In the same way the local radio station LOVES the 4th of July event we have locally. It draws 50% of its annual revenue from that one, single event.

Media are advertisers that happen to make content of one form or antoher. They don't care about quality, they care about putting out copy to create ad space. They want their content to maximize audience, not be thought provoking. So you don't get smart news, you get news written so it makes the average idiot feel smart. And once they lure you to the trough with their slop, you have someone pop up trying to sell you viagra, or a car, or a cause....

....media content is bait to get you to look at an ad for someone to get your money. If we could only have ad blockers in real life I have it turned off on ATS, but that is the only site I whitelist

reply to post by fnpmitchreturns


That would explain the 6% FB drop yesterday. Shares now 1/2 of IPO.

This is Karma, pure and simple. Facebook initially made most of their money selling your personal information to the highest bidder.

Physical gold or silver is the only option from here. Markets are ready to dump big time.

S&F

Peace Out