Been a fan of Demographic Targeting for a while, but noticed Google AdWords doesn't really do much of it (say, compared to Microsoft AdCenter) - but that's about to change with Demographic Targeting enabled in AdWords - see post in TechCrunch about Can Google Fix Its MySpace Problem With Demographic Targeting?
"...You’ve got to wonder if this is how Google hopes to fix its MySpace problem. Google watchers will recall that when the company missed its fourth quarter earnings, it partly blamed the poor performance of its ads on social networks (read: MySpace). By offering demographic targeting on MySpace and other social sites, perhaps Google is hoping to turn that around. It certainly needs to do something to make all of that social-network ad inventory pay off.
But TechCrunch brings up an obvious but over looked fact - people don't want to see ads that much in a Social Network - and if they do see ads, the better be good:
"...It might be the people. Or rather, it might be that the people you find on social networks are just better at tuning out ads. Perhaps they are less receptive to traditional advertising in what they consider to be a semi-private space. So it may not be so much the targeting as the ad units themselves that need fixing. They need to seem less like blaring come-ons and more like social invitations. And there is not much Google can do about that."
Right ... no much Google can do about ads looking like ads.
Perhaps Ads in a Social Network need to be ... more Social?
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