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Facebook showed this ad to 95% women. Is that a problem?

In 2019, Facebook settled a lawsuit with civil rights groups following the revelation that advertisers using their platform could use the targeting options to exclude many specific demographics from seeing their ads. It’s now more difficult for an unscrupulous advertiser to use Facebook’s platform to discriminate.

However, even when you remove human bias from the system, Facebook’s ad delivery algorithms can result in biased outcomes. According to research from Northeastern University, Facebook sometimes displays ads to highly skewed audiences based on the content of the ad.

By purchasing ads and inputting neutral targeting options, the researchers found that the algorithmically determined audience for job ads for cleaners, secretaries, nurses, and preschool teachers was mostly women. The job ads for fast food workers, supermarket cashiers, and taxi drivers skewed toward Black users. The studies show that by targeting “relevant” users, these systems can reinforce existing disparities in our interests and our opportunities.

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Study: half of the money brands invest in programmatic advertising never reaches online

A new study by ISBA has found that half the money advertisers invest in programmatic advertising never reaches online publishers, with 15% of the money unattributable to any players in the supply chain. Half of the money brands spend on online publishers is lost in the programmatic advertising supply chain and 15% cannot be attributed at all. The advertiser-funded research from ISBA, in association with the Association of Online Publishers (AOP) and carried out by PwC, marks the first time that programmatic advertising supply chains have been mapped from end-to-end, anywhere in the world. The study collected data from 15 brands – including Tesco, BT, Unilever and British Airways – eight agencies, five demand side platforms (DSPs), six supply side platforms (SSPs) and 12 publishers, representing approximately PS100m in UK programmatic media spend in total. However, given the study only takes into account disclosed programmatic models, this is a best-case scenario and the figure is likely much higher in the long-tail of publishers and ad tech. It has taken advertisers and publishers nine months to retrieve the data from tech vendors, highlighting the lack of organisation and complexity in the supply chain. “Advertisers and publishers want to share their data, the bit in the middle should be facilitating that,” says PwC partner Sam Tomlinson. IAB CEO Jon Mew adds: “Transparency in digital advertising’s supply chain is critical for its sustainable future and we thank our members for their proactive involvement in this study.

‘There is a big hole in the value chain’: Brands lose 50% of the money they invest in programmatic ads
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Marketing Trends 2020: Artificial Intelligence & Google Smart Bidding

In 2017, Google announced that are now an AI-first company. They have been working on a number of different areas using AI technology, with smart bidding being one of them. If you are not already using smart bidding, then you need to get on it now. Smart Bidding is type of PPC campaign that automatically adjusts to the current situation of your consumer. Typical signals that would automatically adjust the bid are time of day, location, device, language and OS. And it also tracks cookies and historical data of the individual. Today, Google is available through various touchpoints and devices. Load of applications are using Google services and devices like smart speakers, smart TVs and smart fridges are all using the Google. Through these touchpoints and devices, Google is gathering so much data that they can use to provide a personalized service. So What Does Google Know? Well, they know quite a lot. They know: -How many searches you made -What Youtube videos you watch -What websites you use -Your contacts -Your locations -And much more… Google will use this information to adjust your bids so that you get a better ROI. Also, Google smart bidding will provide you with up-to-date analytics information about how your campaigns are performing. So you can adjust your budget to get a higher revenue.

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AdShares: Decentralized Programmatic

Adshares is the first genuinely decentralized marketplace for programmatic advertising. It is also the most advanced blockchain-based project in the advertising market. We use own blockchain to connect publishers and advertisers and let them make direct deals. Adshares is not about a group or an individual controlling the market, but about creating a decentralized space for the market to grow freely.