Interesting doings in the media world that are rolling out this week…
TikTok Gives Users More Control Over Data With New Transparency Ad Targeting Tools …
“TikTok’s new “About this ad” feature allows users to tap on any ad in their feed and view the reasons why TikTok has decided to show the ad to them.
Users can go to the “share” menu in the lower right corner of an ad to access this personalized ad targeting information, which may depend on a user’s age, gender, location, and/or a specific range of relevant interests such as pets or skateboarding.”
Andy, I thought, ‘What. Why- Who in the world would take the time to do that?’
Then I read on. But, first, I saw this:
Meta Announces New AI Advantage Program Features
“In lieu of Apple’s iOS 14.5 privacy rules, Meta has announced the addition of several new automated ad tools to its recently launched “Meta Advantage” program. The update — focused on helping large and small businesses quickly understand which ads are working best — will launch August 15.
The most notable update involves the new “Advantage+ Shopping” campaigns — once called “Automated Shopping Ads” — which eliminate the manual steps of ad creation by automating up to 150 creative combinations at once.”
Back to the TikTok article…
“In other words, regardless of whether users opt out or change settings, TikTok can still collect users’ in-app activity in its ad targeting process.
“About this ad” has launched globally, though TikTok says they plan to add more features in the coming months, like “disclosing the advertiser behind a certain ad and giving users more options to control their ad experience.”
It should be stated, however, that TikTok has also made recent attempts to evade restrictions on ad-targeting in certain regions through what Social Media Today called “questionable means.”
So there we have it…The true reason in both of these stories. Meta and TikTok finding ways to benefit themselves and skirt around new-ish privacy regulations.
And the crazy things it, Meta, this is not a new idea – ad optimization…Google called it Dynamic Search Ads (launched in 2011) and Responsive Search Ads (2018).
