One Man Looks for Love on Facebook — Using Ads

We’ve seen Facebook ads for individuals before, but this guy’s campaign is more personal — and potentially more profitable — than anything we’ve come across in the past.

Meet Matt Simpson of Tempe, Arizona. He’s a web-savvy 30-something, and he’s using Facebook’s self-service ad platform to find a long-term romantic partner.

In the recent past, Mashable staffers have been the target of a few campaigns from people who want to get our attention, either for news coverage or for a job. Facebook’s hyper-specific data on users makes it possible for those ad-buying individuals to narrow their campaigns to reach only a select few targets — the people most likely to respond to the ad.

Simpson has taken advantage of those capabilities in a new way. Since he knows what he wants — an emotionally balanced, intellectually and spiritually mature woman — he was able to set his campaign parameters to include women with an expressed interest in yoga, meditation and books by spiritual authors.

On his blog, Simpson notes that on most dating sites, women are bombarded with requests and messages. Too often, those pings are based on shallow, physical criteria. By creating a subtle way to reach out to women who share his deeper interests — and by allowing them to “opt in” to learning more about him rather than seeing his name in a deluge of suitor-sent missives — he might be increasing his odds of finding love online.

And at a cost of $0.75 per click, he might end up saving money rather than using a dating site or trying his luck in the real world of bars and coffee shops. So far, he’s spent less than $20 for his campaign, where women indicate they’d like to get to know him better; for contrast, a Match.com membership, where women are more on the defensive, would have cost him around $35 per month.

Simpson says he’s had no dates yet, but he was contacted by six women in the first week of the campaign.

“For tech-savvy folks like us,” he wrote in an email, “the gut reaction toward ‘creepy’ is not as strong. However, the public at large seems to have a difference reaction — either because it’s invasive or because it seems desperate.

“I think it’s a promotion-versus-attraction issue. The proliferation of dating sites has helped America accept attraction-based online dating. Promotion-based online dating is new. There’s got to be a reason that the big dating sites don’t offer added profile exposure for purchase.”

What do you think of the campaign? Weird, creepy, interesting — or perhaps even something you’d try yourself?

More About: advertising, dating, facebook, facebook ads, love, relationships

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