Understanding Consumer Intent from the perspective of ads

Context:

The Ads Transparency and Control team at Facebook wanted to understand what do people want and expect out of ads and what are people willing to share with Facebook in order to receive a better ad experience. This topic was a major project for the first half of 2017 that is laying ground for a lot of future work around utilizing consumer intent to deliver an improved ad experience. The goal of the team is to make every click on an ad meaningful.

My role:

I lead research on the Ads Transparency and Control team at Facebook. I led qualitative research that consisted of 1:1 interviews followed a participatory design session with each participant. Participants for this study were recruited through a consumer segmentation model that ensured all of them were positive about Facebook including the ads. The study started with pilot sessions that helped in honing the discussion guide on point and building a vocabulary around the usage of ads with users. All findings were collated and analyzed to find patterns around how people think about ads and what they want out of ads experience. I led a brainstorming workshop with the team to discuss ideas around each theme over a period of few weeks. All the ideas were analyzed and grouped in terms of importance/difficulty matrix. Further on, quick wins were quickly identified that were formed into action items for members of the team and the remaining long term ideas were stored in for product roadmapping and/or further research.

 
 

Findings:

  1. Remind Me! - Many participants mention seeing ads that “trigger” a “reminder” for them - like “oh yeah I was meaning to buy this!” They then typically go somewhere else to actually buy the item
    1. These ads are typically, but not always, remarketed ads
    2. e.g. “Here's an ad about a light bulb I'm supposed to buy for the woman at my workplace”
  2. I'm consistently interested in this, so show it often - Most participants had one or two interests they were consistently interested in, and like seeing ads related to these interests often
    1. “I'm super interested in Adventure Games... not other types of games though”
    2. “I'm always interested in seeing things about fishing trips”
    3. “I like travel”
  3. Match my Goal - some participants see an ad and find it relevent because it matches a particular goal
    1. An immediate temporal goal like “I've been meaning to buy a Raiders hat with the Raiders logo on the brim and here's one”
    2. Or a medium term temporal goal like “I need to buy a car for my daughter”
    3. Or a longer term goal like “I've been meaning to learn how to code, and here's a programming boot camp”


Attitudes toward ads are Time Oriented

  • I'll never want this or be interested in it
    • “Nope. Babies are kryptonite for me”
  • I might be interested in this later
    • “If my daughter has a baby, I'll be interested in this infant category”
  • I will be interested in this later
    • “I'll be interested in this clothing around Valentine's Day”
    • “Later tonight when I'm cooking dinner I'll want to see this video”
  • I'm interested in this now
    • “I'm looking for a raiders hat, this is an ad for a raiders hat”