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Facebook Businesses Social Networks

Facebook's Small Advertisers Say They're Hurt by AI Lockouts (bloomberg.com) 62

Posted by msmash from the closer-look dept.
Small advertisers that rely on Facebook to spread marketing messages are up in arms over the social network's automated ad systems, complaining that inflexible account blocking tools and a lack of customer assistance are hurting business. From a report: One digital marketer, Chris Raines, was setting up an advertising campaign on Facebook last week when his account abruptly stopped working. Raines uses his account to manage ads for clients' Facebook Pages. Without it, he couldn't do his job. The lockout was a nuisance, but then Raines noticed something more concerning: A $3,000-per-day ad campaign that he'd set up for a client before his account was locked continued to run even though he could no longer manage it. Raines was spending his client's money without any way to control how.

Raines tried to confirm his identity using Facebook's automated systems, but received an error message. Eventually, he called the advertiser and asked if they would make his wife an administrator to the company-owned Facebook Page. Using her account, he was finally able to log in and manage the Facebook ads, which includes adjusting details like who sees the ad and how much to spend. "The actual injury, especially for advertisers and marketers, is immense," said Raines, who runs a digital media company called Bullhorn Media. "Had I not had that workaround, my business would have went away."
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Facebook's Small Advertisers Say They're Hurt by AI Lockouts More

Facebook's Small Advertisers Say They're Hurt by AI Lockouts

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  • Ad companies having difficulties delivering their ads to me. LOL Been using uBlock Origin (and AdBlock Plus before that) for years. Doesn't matter either way.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by rtb61 ( 674572 )

      Ad companies who are having problems delivering ads when they do not pay Facebook for the service. That is what is really going on.

  • Sleep with the devil (Score:4, Interesting)

    by mrobinso ( 456353 ) on Tuesday December 22, 2020 @11:50AM (#60857042) Homepage

    This is what you get.
    Facebook is so out of control it's not even funny.

    For future reference, set up a half dozen separate dummy FB accounts for each client.
    The added bureaucracy is far less destructive than a runaway ad campaign.

    • It's not just Facebook (Score:4, Informative)

      by rsilvergun ( 571051 ) on Tuesday December 22, 2020 @12:56PM (#60857312)
      just about all software companies have terrible customer service. It's because good customer service costs more money than the profits you make from it except in high end goods. Hell, I remember reading in the late 80s/early 90s that if you make 1 call for tech support to a PC game manufacturer they've lost all profit on the sale.
      • Which is why software companies that have good customer service comes with ongoing support contracts.
        • If I buy a $100 copy of such and such software though I'm pretty much on my own. Support is expensive, and users will lean on you for everything that is even tangentially related to your product. e.g. if you sell an accounting package they'll make you do their accounting for them if they can get away with it.

      • This guy sounds like he is doing thousands of dollars of business with Facebook per year, but they won't give him the time of day.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by antdude ( 79039 )

        It's not just software companies. Almost ALL kinds of companies.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mad7777 ( 946676 )
      the trouble is, there is no other option. we are a four-founder startup, and each one of us hates FB more than the next. and yet... our dumb clients and their dumb clients want FB. so, if we want to life, we do FB. in the meantime, FB has banned one of our developers without explanation or recourse, and severely restricted another one, also for no apparent reason. his appeal has been pending now for a solid month.

      we are terrified of having our business permanently banned, especially since we have no idea

  • Drive-by "security" (Score:4, Informative)

    by sinij ( 911942 ) on Tuesday December 22, 2020 @11:54AM (#60857066)
    I had similar experience with Google ads, where after years of low-key specific keywords advertising they decided they need to see "Papers, please" to continue allowing me to manage the AdWords account. Fortunately for me, it was an easy decision to cancel the service instead. Unlike FB, Google had a person I could reach.

  • side-effects of robocheap (Score:3)

    by Tablizer ( 95088 ) on Tuesday December 22, 2020 @11:56AM (#60857086) Journal

    These "big web" companies don't want to hire lots of people to manage content filtering and customer complaints. They've got away with using quantity over quality for a long time because since most their services are "free", customers can't sue them for breach of contract. But the side-effects of robocheap are catching up to them.

  • Comment removed (Score:3)

    by account_deleted ( 4530225 ) on Tuesday December 22, 2020 @11:57AM (#60857090)
    Comment removed based on user account deletion
    • Well, Its Facebuck so I really DGAF, however if you lock out the only account holder it would seem questionable at best, and illegal at worst, to continue charging an account that the owner can not access. Especially once they contact you about their issue.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Zumbs ( 1241138 )
        Probably true, but litigation against a giant of Facebooks size is likely to be expensive. On the other hand, sending an official letter in law-language might actually get a human to look at your account and help you out.

    • No, it isn't. If you're behind CGNAT, you will be treated like a suspect if someone with whom you share the external IP address has an infected computer and is scanning ports, attacking systems or sending spam. You can do everything by the book and still get sent to captcha purgatory. It can be even worse than using TOR, because it's not obvious that you're using shared address space. Even if you're not behind CGNAT, you can inherit someone else's IP address and find yourself held responsible for their lack

      • You can do everything by the book and still get sent to captcha purgatory.

        Odd you should say this. The other day I went to Google (can't remember why) for the first time in probably a year. As soon as I went to their page I was told there was a suspicious amount of traffic from my network and I had to use captcha to verify I was a person.

        What makes this so ridiculous is the only network I'm on is Comcast's. I did solve the captcha, did whatever it was I needed to do, then left. Not going back t

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by sinij ( 911942 )
        I can confirm the above. I regularly wipe tracking with CCleaner on top of running NoScript with a long blacklist of known ad servers and I can confirm that algorithmic security does not like this and frequently punishes me with various additional verifications.
      • Comment removed based on user account deletion

    • No, it definitely does not equate to that. Several people I know have been locked out of FB with the explanation from FB being completely bogus - claims that pictures or comments are against "community standards" is the usual explanation, complete with a snapshot of the picture or comment, which is a mention of how their kid did well in school or similar.

      The AI really does crazy things, and it's nearly impossible to get a review - and it is *definitely* impossible to get a *timely* review, even if you have

  • So if I read this correctly, the guy's business is building and selling Facebook ad campaigns to customers, on top of Facebook's infrastructure. Meanwhile, Facebook's core business is... building and selling ads to customers.

    What could possibly go wrong here?

    • Re: (Score:1)

      by Anonymous Coward

      Facebook is doing fraud when they take 3000 usd per day and lock the fb account

  • The biggest problem being a small business, is that you don't have the money for expensive marketing to really show off what you can do. So you end up looking like the daily scam.

    This is why a lot of people when their car breaks down, they will go to the dealer to get it fixed, vs your local mechanic, who probably can fix the problem for a lot less, and often for even more less, if you are OK with third party or used parts. However your local Mechanic, is in a dirty garage, with a guy in oil covered overa

  • you are Guilty until proven innocent.

    ( It is in the nature of a rule based system that there will be ambiguity in the rules.)
    (It is in the nature of a computer to make a decision and stick with it.)
    If computer are enforcing the rules in an 'automated' fashion, then logically it is 'my way or the highway'.

    Of course their may be a review process, if we the company decide to pay enough people to do something other then rubber stamp, but the computer will flag you again.

    My major problem with facebook is they re

  • If you're advertising on Facebook you're a scammer.

    Seriously, choosing to advertise on Facebook means that you are looking to sell to the dumbest and least net-capable idiots (and, aside and seprately, are willing to abandon all ethics and disregard the bahaviour of the company you use for advertising).

    Why would you do that if you were a legitimate business and had a product that could actually survive in a real market?

    • More the two-thirds of the US population is on Facebook. That's a pretty big market of dumb people.

      • "Have a Facebook account" is not the same as "have actually openned Facebook in the last 3 years, and are too dumb to have functional adblock in place" which is what would count as "on Facebook" as far as advertising goes.

  • Fail (Score:2)

    by dcw3 ( 649211 )

    If you're expecting to get most of your business through FB, you don't deserve a business.

  • Isn't that what their insipid ads targeting Apple were ludicrously claiming?

  • Reliance on Fecesbook unless you ARE Fecesbook is less than brilliant, and piggybacking your shit on their shit just adds to the shitfest. It may be a dumpster fire but it's THEIR dumpster fire and they are more powerful than you are which is far more important than the trivialities (in the real world) of right and wrong.
    Facebook is for boomers of all ages and targets the dimmest bulbs in the chandelier so it's obviously tempting. Find workarounds if you really want to milk the stupid.

  • It's not artificial intelligence, it's artificial stupidity, when even natural stupidity is just too expensive.

  • And Facebook claims it is defending small businesses against evil Apple.. so this is how they do it? ;)

    Delete Facebook. Youâ(TM)ll be happier.

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