Advertising and Facebook content
Advertising
Facebook offers a range of products that allow advertisers to reach people on and off Facebook. In addition to the information we provide in this section, you can also learn more about advertising products, how they work, our partnerships, and the controls you have, by visiting our “Advertising on Facebook” page.
When we deliver ads, we do not share your information (information that personally identifies you, such as your name or contact information) with advertisers unless you give us permission. We may provide advertisers with information when we have removed your name and other personally identifying information from it, or combined it with other information so that it no longer personally identifies you. For example, we may tell an advertiser how its ads perform or how many people viewed or clicked on their ads or install an app after seeing an ad.
So we can show you content that you may find interesting, we may use all of the information we receive about you to serve ads that are more relevant to you. For example, this includes:
- information you provide at registration or add to your account or timeline,
- things you share and do on Facebook, such as what you like, and your interactions with advertisements, partners, or apps,
- keywords from your stories, and
- things we infer from your use of Facebook.
For many ads we serve, advertisers may choose their audience by location, demographics, likes, keywords, and any other information we receive or infer about users. Here are some of the ways advertisers may target relevant ads:
- demographics and interests: for example, 18 to 35 year-old women who live in the United States and like basketball;
- topics or keywords: for example, “music” or people who like a particular song or artist;
- Page likes (including topics such as products, brands, religion, health status, or political views): for example, if you like a Page about Gluten-free food, you may receive ads about relevant food products; or
- categories (including things like "moviegoer" or a "sci-fi fan"): for example, if a person "likes" the "Star Trek" Page and mentions "Star Wars" when they check into a movie theater, we may infer that this person is likely to be a sci-fi fan and advertisers of sci-fi movies could ask us to target that category.
Try this tool to see one of the ways advertisers target ads and what information they see.
In addition to delivering relevant ads, Facebook sometimes pairs ads with social context, meaning stories about social actions that you or your friends have taken. For example, an ad for a sushi restaurant’s Facebook Page may be paired with a News Feed story that one of your friends likes that Page. Here is an example of an ad with social context:
We also sometimes serve these same types of ads on other sites or may serve just the social context (such as with ads served by others), so that the ads are more relevant to you. Just like any other content you share on Facebook, only people who you’re already sharing with on Facebook would see it when it is paired with an ad. We also allow advertisers to reach people on Facebook using the information they already have about you (such as email addresses or whether you have visited their websites previously). You can learn more about ads, social context, and our partnerships, including the relevant settings and controls available to you, by visiting the Advertising on Facebook page.
- If an advertiser chooses to run ads, we serve the ads to people who meet criteria the advertiser selects. So, if someone views or otherwise interacts with the ad, the advertiser might assume that the person meets the criteria they selected (for example, that the person is an 18-to-35-year-old woman who lives in the U.S. and likes basketball). We require advertisers to comply with our Advertising Guidelines, including provisions relating to the use of sensitive data.
- Advertisers and their partners sometimes use cookies or other similar technologies in order to serve and measure ads and to make their ads more effective. Learn more about cookies, pixels and similar technologies.
- When you post a story on Facebook and an advertiser sponsors it, nothing changes about the audience of the post. Only the people who could originally see the post (the people you shared it with) are eligible to see it.
Facebook content
We like to tell you about some of the features and tools your friends and others use on Facebook, to help you have a better experience. For example, if your friend uses our friend finder tool to find more friends on Facebook, we may tell you about it to encourage you to use it as well. This of course means your friend may similarly see suggestions based on the things you do. But we will try to only show it to friends that could benefit from your experience.