The recent midterm elections illustrated the stark decline in political ad spending on Facebook, likely as a result of a few key factors:
Apple’s 2021 iOS privacy changes has limited advertisers’ ability to target voters;
a sensitivity to overreliance on one particular platform;
the maturation of connected streaming devices and platforms.
Political ads have historically been a relatively small part of Facebook’s overall business, so the significance of this shift is less about lost revenue (although Facebook’s stock has tanked recently) and more about the impact of privacy changes on industries that rely on highly targeted advertising. Connected streaming devices and services have matured such that location and behavioral click-through data can enable targeted advertising, and the tools to push those ads are comparably easy to that of Facebook, but I think it’s just a matter of time before the same privacy concerns crop up and limit ad effectiveness.
I think this highlights an interesting tension between effective advertising and user privacy. On one hand, if users are going to be served ads regardless, then they probably want ones that are more relevant than not. On the other hand, targeted advertising can create filter bubbles and perpetuate racial biases and inequality, amongst other unintended (or even intentional) consequences. I don’t know what the right answer is – and I’m not even sure there is one, given how rapidly the advertising landscape and accompanying legal and regulatory policies are changing – but it’s interesting to watch advertisers and ad platforms continuously try to adjust to an ever-changing industry.
Article: https://www.cnbc.com/2022/11/02/facebook-has-lost-political-ad-dollars-since-apple-crackdown.html
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