Chris Seline:
I decided I would target the CEO of Reddit with Facebook ads.
But how? I didn’t have a big budget so I needed to be clever.
It turns out the Reddit CEO had a public Facebook profile, so I could go there to see details about him. Where he lived. What he was interested in. I took that info to the Facebook platform to help narrow down the campaign. But I didn’t want everyone to click on it, just one person. So I custom tailored the ad to directly target the one person I wanted to read it.
I applaud Chris’ initiative here. Incredibly clever to figure out how to get in front of a difficult to reach person via a highly personalized Facebook ad. His strategy worked. Read the post for the details.
As to how much Chris spent:
The ad reached 197 people. 4 People clicked on it. One of them was the CEO of Reddit. I spent a total of $10.62.
Steve Huffman, CEO of Reddit, saw my ad, clicked on it, read (probably skimmed) my article, and liked it well enough to send a note to Reddit HR to contact me about a position.
Mission accomplished.
Clever as this is, I can’t help but see a stalker/creepy side to this story as well. The thought that someone could use information easily available on the internet to build a low cost ad that is almost guaranteed to reach the targeted individual seems custom made for a stalker. Or for someone trying to win an election.
“The thought that someone could use information easily available on the
internet to build a low cost ad that is almost guaranteed to reach the
targeted individual seems custom made for a stalker. Or for someone
trying to win an election.”
… so?
I mean, for #1, “oh no, a stalker put an ad in front of me” is the least invasive, highest-effort stalking in the world.
And for #2, well … again, the level of effort vs. the low cash cost, makes that irrelevant. (Remember, when you’re not one dude trying to get a job, time costs money!)