Facebook – Real-Time Ad Targeting

Back in March I read a super interesting article on Ad Age about Facebook starting to mine real-time conversations for ad targeting.

Yes, Facebook has been delivering targeted ads based on status updates and other posts for a while – but it’s never been instantaneous. Look at what I immediately noticed after updating my status this morning:

If it’s too small to see, basically I had included the words “Colorado” and “precious” in my post. As you can see from the screen shot, I was instantly given options for “related to your post” over on the left. This caused two reactions for me:

1. Wow, that was fast. Looks like Facebook is making real-time headway!
2. Obviously the context was not taken into account. If the algorithms were truly intelligent, they’d offer me an ad for flowers or something you’d buy to bring to a wake. 

I wonder how long it will be until context and sentiment are crucial elements to the mathematics behind Facebook targeting.