This is a post by Jesse Pujji. Jessi a serial entrepreneur that lives in the US. He has:
- Bootstrapped to an 8-figure exist with his previous startup, Ampush
- Is currently building GatewayX, a venture studio that he plans to bootstrap to $1B+
- Executive Chairman & Founder of GrowthAssistant.com
- ex-McKinsey Consultant
Guest Author: Jesse Pujji
Is Facebook listening to your conversations?
No, they are not.
They are doing something MUCH more effective!
Here’s how it works👇🏽👇🏽👇🏽
The two most valuable pieces of software on earth are: 1) the $FB pixel and 2) the $FB newsfeed.
When you wonder, how come FB is worth 20X Twitter, those two pieces of software are your answer.
The FB pixel is a tiny piece of code that nearly every website on the planet has embedded.
It feeds data back to FB (in aggregate, anonymized) for the list of websites visited, how much time was spent, did you buy or not, etc.
The newsfeed algo looks at that as a signal as well as hundreds of other things (your age, who your friends are, what ads you screenshot) to determine which ad to place in front of you.
Again, all of this is done in groupings. Not personal.
When they get it right: right message in front of right person at right time….everyone wins.
A brand finds a new customer.
You find a product you want.
FB makes $.
And this is a good thing.
You get value from this all the time.
You’re shopping for a mattress. You go to Casper’s website. Then back to FB/IG.
You start getting ads for other mattress companies and even a mattress comparison site.
You find the right choice, you buy!
So, back to FB listening to us. They have a way more effective and smarter system.
If me and Nik Sharma get lunch, FB knows it. How?
Our devices were in close proximity to each other for about an hour at neither of our houses in the middle of the day.
FB also knows the last 10 websites each of us visited b4 lunch.
It bets (usually correctly) that we will talk about a few of these websites.
So after lunch, it shows us each ads based on the other person’s browsing history.
We didn’t discuss 9/10 of the websites the other person visited so we don’t even notice that.
But the 1 we happened to discuss JUMPS out at us. And we conclude: FB has been listening!!
In reality, they use tech, data, and tools available to most mobile apps and some smart probabilistic modeling.
The result is: more relevant ads (even though it may feel creepy at times) which improves the experience for everyone!
Before you judge, remember this smart algo is used by millions of entrepreneurs to grow their businesses every day.
And helps consumers discover new products every day.
Follow me for more knowledge and stories about $FB, entrepreneurship, growth marketing, DTC, and bootstrapping.
