Facebook Files for Patent on Inferential Ad Targeting

October 27th, 2010

Facebook has filed for an ad targeting patent that lets the company direct ads based on the tastes of a a user’s friends, on top of their own explicit interests.

It seems to be linked to a “Friends of Connections” targeting feature that the company launched last November, allowing marketers to reach friends of fans of their Pages or application users.

But it also covers other twists on the idea, including using a person’s browsing habits or actions on the social network to target ads. Although the patent document only appeared earlier this month, the company filed for it in April of last year.

Facebook argued in the filing that self-reported interests often leave out people who might fit within a targeted group for an advertiser. The idea would be to help marketers reach potential customers who haven’t shared enough information about themselves to feed Facebook’s ad targeting algorithms.

“An advertiser may miss out on members who have “incomplete” profiles–incomplete only in the sense that the profiles lack the information that the ad’s targeting criteria is testing. Thus, the advertiser’s reach is significantly reduced,” according to the patent application.

Facebook could get around this in a number of ways. For example, if a Facebook user is friends with members of a tightly-knit group of people who all happen to be alumni of a specific university, the company might be able to infer that the person will respond to ads targeted at the school.

It could also factor in the closeness of a user’s relationships with their friends. So if you have distant acquaintances that are all fans of Britney Spears, Facebook’s targeting algorithms might not rank your interest in the pop singer as highly.

A user’s friends could also help Facebook understand who is deeply interested in a topic. For example, a surfboard company who wants to find serious surfers could target users who say they’re interested in surfing and have five friends who are also interested in surfing.

The patent also covers other types of behavioral ad targeting. If a user tends to create many photo albums, a photo-sharing service might be able to reach out to them even if they do not mention they enjoy photography. Or if a user tends to click on video ads compared to plain text ones, Facebook could serve them more rich media advertisements.

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15 Responses to “Facebook Files for Patent on Inferential Ad Targeting”

Udi Barone says:
October 28th, 2010 at 12:19 am
I would advice them to check prior-art.

I’ve filled a similar patent over 4 years ago on Aug 2006.

For more see:
http://www.freepatentsonline.com/y2007/0121843.html
Next Up: Inferential ad targeting? « socialmediocrity says:
October 28th, 2010 at 3:58 am
[...] leave a comment » According to a report on InsideFacebook, Facebook have filed for a patent on inferential ad targeting. [...]
Nina Mehta says:
October 28th, 2010 at 5:21 am
Thanks for this post. It doesn’t surprise me that Facebook made this move but it’s something I would expect (or hope, rather) from the news industry first.

I wrote a post on it, what do you think? http://ninamehta.com/blog/2010/what-if-ads-werent-such-a-bad-thing/
siteIT social media מדיה חברתית says:
October 28th, 2010 at 6:09 am
פייסבוק לוקחים ברצינות את המושג
“אמור לי מי חבריך ואמור לך מי אתה”
הם למעשה מתרגטים את הלייקים של החברים שלכם והעדפותיהם על מנת להציג לכם פרסומות שיהיו רלוונטיות עבור הטעמים שלכם.
הרעיון נשמע מעניין, נראה איך יהיה הביצוע.
Brevetto Facebook Ads : Inferential Targeting — Francesco Tinti says:
October 28th, 2010 at 7:30 am
[...] e liberamente tradotto da: Inside Facebook. var sidebarElement = new [...]
JNG says:
October 28th, 2010 at 11:27 am
Hey Udi –

I suggest you start developing your claims in the PTO so they are not so open ended, but instead are narrow and shrinkwrapped for FB -that will make your prosecution go faster and you’ll get your patent faster.
Facebook Ad Patent Taps Your Social Network says:
October 28th, 2010 at 1:26 pm
[...] – and they’ve filed a patent application to cover their method, as first noted by Inside Facebook. The idea is that you can infer someone’s interests from their browsing patterns and in some [...]
Udi Barone says:
October 29th, 2010 at 12:21 pm
Dear JNG,

Thanks for the tip. To sharpen my argument here I refer anyone trusted to my patent, Fig 18, flow-diagram, element denoted 1845 where it says

“Weighted factors … - Total network members answering campaign profile” (where the campaign profile includes beyond demographics and interests).

I believe that it’s specific enough to imply what Facebook wanted to patent as legit prior arts.
Derrick Norris says:
October 29th, 2010 at 11:51 pm
The fact Facebook has filed for an ad targeting patent that lets it direct ads based on the tastes of your friends, just shows how insecure your information on facebook actually is. Facebook is now using user content for their own moentary gains and does not care about user security. I have quit facebook and am waiting for a safer site like MyCube or Diaspora to release which will actually care about my privacy
Udi Barone says:
October 30th, 2010 at 11:52 am
Hey JNG,

Please email me your details. I’d be glad to have a word with you. my email is: udi@beesandpollen.com.

Thanks
Facebook Ad Services says:
October 31st, 2010 at 1:52 am
As an advertiser, I’m super excited to see this. It’ll really expand the depth we can target users with. And I know a large percentage of users don’t fill out their accounts, making a large void for advertisers and Facebook, as well.
FACEBOOK naujienos ir patarimai #64 | Komunikacija FACEBOOK'e says:
November 2nd, 2010 at 12:08 am
[...] Facebook’as užpildė dokumentus dar vienam patentui gauti. Šį kartą – reklamos moduliui, kuris leidžia vartotojams siūlyti socialinį advokatavimą, t.y. kai jūsų draugui rodoma reklama, kuri susieta su jūsų draugo ryšiais konkrečiam prekės ženklui. [...]
Behavioral Advertising / Publicité Comportementale » Facebook Files for Patent on Inferential Ad Targeting says:
November 7th, 2010 at 1:21 am
[...] Facebook has filed for an ad targeting patent that lets the company direct ads based on the tastes o… [...]
Why small businesses should use Facebook ads « Claire Faucett says:
November 8th, 2010 at 5:47 pm
[...] recently applied for a patent on the technology. Obviously they realize they have yet again stumbled into something great. Reported just today, [...]
Facebook – WE are the product | Adventures in Corporate Education says:
November 14th, 2010 at 8:40 am
[...] online activities, who you like, who you talk to, what you play, what you read……and building applications to predict what you *should* want to see. We know that they have algorithms to show us news updates, what [...]