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when a user gives Facebook a phone number for two-factor authentication or in order to receive alerts about new log-ins to a user’s account, that phone number became targetable by an advertiser within a couple of weeks

I’ve been trying to get Facebook to disclose shadow contact information to users for almost a year now. But it has even refused to disclose these shadow details to users in Europe, where privacy law is stronger and explicitly requires companies to tell users what data it has on them.

To test the shadow information finding, the researchers tried a real-world test. They uploaded a list of hundreds of landline numbers from Northeastern University. These are numbers that people who work for Northeastern are unlikely to have added to their accounts, though it’s very likely that the numbers would be in the address books of people who know them and who might have uploaded them to Facebook in order to “find friends.” The researchers found that many of these numbers could be targeted with ads, and when they ran an ad campaign, the ad turned up in the Facebook news feed of Mislove, whose landline had been included in the file; I confirmed this with my own test targeting his landline number.

“I think that many users don’t fully understand how ad targeting works today: that advertisers can literally specify exactly which users should see their ads by uploading the users’ email addresses, phone numbers, names+dates of birth, etc,” said Mislove. “In describing this work to colleagues, many computer scientists were surprised by this, and were even more surprised to learn that not only Facebook, but also Google, Pinterest, and Twitter all offer related services. Thus, we think there is a significant need to educate users about how exactly targeted advertising on such platforms works today.”

There are certainly creepier practices happening in the advertising industry, but it’s troubling this is happening at Facebook because of its representations about letting you control your ad experience. It’s disturbing that Facebook is reducing the privacy of people who want their accounts to be more secure by using the information they provide for that purpose to data-mine them for ads.

When I asked the company last year about whether it used shadow contact information for ads, it gave me inaccurate information, and it hadn’t made the practice clear in its extensive messaging to users about ads

Snapchat now works with 15 outside partners that help sell its inventory, and in January it struck a deal with Oracle Data Cloud to show ads based on what its users buy in the real world.

Snapchat is optional, not compulsory, on media plans

Snapchat is pushing buyers to place more ads inside its show, as evidenced by a charm offensive launched this year to create short-form original shows it can sell around the Discover part of the app.

Facebook has been quite open about the fact that it is targeting Google’s DoubleClick display ad business with this move

Media buyers said advertisers would be more interested in video ads if Facebook allowed them to better target specific sets of users. Facebook currently allows advertisers to target video ads by gender and age, but not by interests, as it does for traditional ads.

"This news further confirms that Facebook has abandoned social marketing in favor of standard push-style ads," said Forrester Research

Video advertising isn't available to all advertisers, and Facebook didn't say when it would expand the offering.

Snapchat's focus on "sound-on" video ads has been appealing to its entertainment clients.

The behavior on the app is very different as you want to focus more on shorter content, whereas on Instagram, people tend to watch longer videos."

Snapchat says its vertical video ads are "as good as television" — and in some ways better — because users can choose to skip ads, swipe up to interact with them, and advertisers can use more granular targeting than TV. But with AdAge reporting in November that the average Snapchat video ad lasts less than three seconds and Snapchat counting a video "view" as soon as the video opens, it remains to be seen whether its ads are more effective than those on TV

3. Sensationalized language And the last Facebook ad approach in the firing line is 'ads which use exaggerated headlines or command a reaction from people but don't deliver on the landing page'.

– 72.6% -- say their ROI from Twitter desktop and mobile ads are virtually the same, a great sign for Twitter's mobile business. Ad Age readers ranked it the third most-effective ad platform behind Google and Facebook, and ahead of LinkedIn, Yahoo and AOL in that order.

Instagram also outlined its coming Creator Profiles, which code hacker Jane Manchun Wong previewed recently (below), while it also shared some usage stats, including that 69% of users say they come to Instagram to interact with celebrities, and over 80% of accounts proactively follow a business on the platform.

Instagram also noted that it will continue to ramp up its push to remove inauthentic activity, including purchased followers and likes, in order to clean-up its platform and improve the integrity of its metrics

Organic and promoted tweets: 71 – 100 characters Whether you’re running an ad or not, data from Buddy Media shows that tweets containing less than 100 characters receive, on average, 17 percent higher engagement than longer tweets. This is, in part, because shorter tweets are easier to read and comprehend. Short tweets also give retweeters enough room to add their own message.

Organic Instagram posts: 138 to 150 characters

Sponsored Instagram posts: 125 characters or less

Instagram hashtags: 5 to 9 per post at less than 24 characters each

According to research by TrackMaven, posts with nine hashtags receive the most engagement:

YouTube videos: 3 minutes

YouTube titles: 70 characters

a lack of measurement data, disinterest among social media celebrities, confusion about the platform, and general indifference towards advertising agencies — are leading more of their clients to abandon it.

Trend Pie's Ricci said. Out of 100,000 "views," he estimated only 1 percent actually saw the ad.

"Instagram is built for finding what you don't follow easily, Snapchat isn't. If Snapchat can figure that out, that will help, because why make content people can't find?"

When Snap went public, he noticed a rush of influencers asking them to include their Snap accounts as available for advertisers. Since then, many have abandoned their accounts to focus on more lucrative platforms

Facebook fails to deliver those messages 84 percent of the time.

It goes back to what Facebook wants to be. They’re going after the easy buck with display ads targeted with the same criteria as ads anywhere else. If all they want to be is Yahoo or MSN, they’ve made great strides.

Don’t be blinded by revenues. Marketers are exceptionally dissatisfied.

What they fail to understand is marketer satisfaction is a leading indicator for spending, not the other way around. If Facebook doesn’t address those problems, more marketers will act on that dissatisfaction.

it’s a social media cul-de-sac since there are no outbound links. Content goes in, nothing come out. And of course the content isn’t searchable, so even if you have a snappy success, you can’t build on that win and amplify it into the future.

Early research also shows that Snapchat ads are ineffective. A study by Digiday showed that more than 90 percent of Snaphchat users abandons a 10-second ad in the first second

nappers love this app for self-expression and connecting with friends — not for following company accounts (less than 1 percent “sometimes” watch branded Snapchat stories). If Snapchat makes its platform more business-friendly, it risks losing its appeal.

Some brands are creating buzz by adding “Easter eggs” to the platform. An Easter egg is an inside joke or hidden feature. Here are some interesting Easter egg case studies in a post by Ryan Hoover.

If your core demographic is under 30, you probably have to figure it out and maintain a presence even if the business benefits are unclear right now.

This year, we expect to see more brands rely on Messenger as a platform to market and sell products to highly targeted audiences.  With Facebook’s new Messages Objective, brands now create ads that allow prospective customers to immediately be connected to a live customer service representative or bot. Sephora, the multinational cosmetics chain, saw an 11 percent increase in makeover bookings with used Facebook’s targeted ads along with Messages Objective.