Open Web is Oxymoron
All heard about the scandal around Facebook and those 3000 ads created by Russians to exert influence on the election? I incredulously watched this phenomenon since the first mention on CNN about the ads and Black Lives Matter. Yes, advertising really bought in Russia, and even in rubles. But according to information from Facebook Newsroom we know: for 50% of the ads, less than $3 was spent; for 99% of the ads, less than $1,000 was spent; an estimated 10 million people in the US saw the ads (not clicked) ; the most important — 56% of impressions were after the US election.
Obviously, the budget and the last number couldn’t afford to have a significant impact on elections. Also we know that Facebook has sold political advertising in Russia just for $100,000 (for presidential campaign!? 😅). There are many analytical agencies, which allow us to focus on average dollar per click. Thus, we have 100 000 clicks. And now, based on similar studies, I propose to use as the basis for a CTR of 2%. Total we get 5 million impressions.
I know that performance marketing professionals could get better results. But I want to argue — range of 10 million human souls is not targeting. Well, let’s increase CTR in 2 times? 100 000 people clicked at first sight? In how many times we should increase CTR and reduce CPC to make numbers match? It’s impossible from the point of view of performance marketing. About 1% of the ads used a specific type of Custom Audiences targeting to reach people. May be someone tryid to get traffic from trend news and that is all? I don’t know. Data doesn’t lie but the interpretation of data does.
Facebook was initially dismissive of the fact that “fake news” disseminated via Facebook impacted the US presidential election. But the social media giant is changing its tune, being more transparent. The company said on Monday that it planned to hire 1,000 more ad reviewers to help keep politically subversive and divisive ads off its platform. This is a huge expense! That’s likely due to one very big fear factor: The prospect of regulation. The truth is, either Facebook should be subject to those same rigorous rules, or the rules should be waived for everyone else (traditional broadcasters). But de facto regulation has already begun.
I always try to bypass the political side. All I’m interested in is the world of technologies and it is changing. Let’s think about the problems in the Silicon Valley, SEC and cryptocurrency, raids on providers in Catalonia, the EU plans for regulation everything, the government access to WeChat’s private data, the closure of Chinese exchanges, Telegram, Iran, Indonesia and Russia. Let’s forget the infantile phrase “Open Web”, which so long and carefully guarded by Mozilla at home page. Unfortunately, everything that happens today is the normal.
