Initial Reading
Read the following text as quickly as you can, and underline the topic sentences or the key words in order to understand the main ideas of the text. Then complete the exercises that follow.
Even if you never click on Facebook ads, they are making you buy things.
[1] This is a story about advertising on Facebook, a hugely popular free service that’s supported solely through advertising. The question persists: How does Facebook expect to become a huge business if most people you know never click on ads? The answer is surprisingly obvious : Clicks don’t matter.Whether you know it or not—even if you consider yourself skeptical of marketing—the ads you see on Facebook are working. Sponsored messages in your feed are changing your behaviour—they’re getting you and your friends to buy certain products instead of others, and that’s happening despite the fact that you’re not clicking, and even if you think you’re ignoring the ads.
[2] This isn’t conjecture. It’s science. It’s based on a remarkable set of in-depth studies that Facebook has conducted to show whether and how its users respond to ads on the site. The studies demonstrate that Facebook ads influence purchases and that clicks don’t matter. They also shed light on Facebook’s long-term business strategy. The findings show that people react to ads on Facebook in the same way they respond to ads on television. If Facebook’s ad business takes off, it might be at the expense of the biggest ad-supported medium in the world.
[3] Now Facebook is trying to bring to the Web same rigorous metrics that have ruled brand advertising on television. At the core of this work is Facebook’s partnership with Datalogix. What they came up with was a Rube Goldbergian system that strips out personally identifiable information from the databases at Facebook, Datalogix, and the major retailers while still matching people and their purchases. The system works by creating three separate data sets. First, Datalogix “hashes” its database—that is, it turns the names, addresses and other personally identifiable data for each person in its logs into long strings of numbers. Facebook and retailers do the same thing to their data. Then, Datalogix compares its hashed data with Facebook’s to find matches. Each match indicates a potential test subject—someone on Facebook who is also part of Datalogix’s database. Datalogix runs a similar process with retailers’transaction data. At the end of it all, Datalogix can compare the Facebook data and the retail data,but, importantly, none of the databases will include any personally identifiable data—so Facebook will never find out whether and when you, personally, purchased Tide, and Procter ＆ Gamble and Kroger will never find out your Facebook profile. Then, each time a major campaign runs on Facebook,the company can see how people’s purchases were affected by ads. What’s most important is that Datalogix gives Facebook extremely large data sets, which allows for enough statistical power to draw fundamental lessons about how people respond to ads.
[4] You may not love the ads you see—and you’ll still never click on them. But unbeknownst to you,Facebook ads still work on you. Resistance is futile.
New Words
click /klɪk/ v.敲击
solely /
səʊlli/ adv.唯一地；仅仅
persist /pə
sɪst/ vt.坚持；固执
skeptical /
skeptɪkl/ adj.多疑的
sponsor /
spɒnsə(r)/ v.赞助
feed /f iːd/ n.馈送的电视节目
ignore /ɪɡ
nɔː(r)/ v.忽略
conjecture /kən
dʒektʃə(r)/ n.推测，猜想
remarkable /rɪ
mɑːkəbl/ adj.引人注目的
conduct /kən
dʌkt/ vt.实施；安排
demonstrate /
demən
streɪt/ vt.证明
influence /
ɪnf luəns/ vt.影响
purchase /
pɜːtʃəs/ n.购买
rigorous /
rɪɡərəs/ adj.缜密的
metrics /
metrɪks/ n.韵律学
partnership /
pɑːtnəʃɪp/ n.合作
personally /
pɜːsənəli/ adv.就个人而言
identifiable /aɪ
dentɪ
faɪəbl/ adj.可确认的
hash /hæʃ/ v.反复推敲
string /strɪŋ/ n.串；字符串
indicate /
ɪndɪkeɪt/ v.表明
transaction /træn
zækʃn/ n.交易；业务
profile /
prəʊfaɪl/ n.个人资料
statistical /stə'tɪstɪkl/ adj.统计的
unbeknownst /
ʌnbɪ'nəʊnst/ adj.不为人知的
resistance /rɪ
zɪstəns/ n.抵抗；阻力
futile /
fju:taɪl/ adj.无效的
Phrases and Expressions
1. be based on 以……为基础
2. respond to 对……做出反应
3. shed light on 为……提供线索
4. react to 对……做出反应
5. take off 成功
6. at the expense of 在损失……的情况下
7. come up with 提出
8. strip out 拆除
9. turn... into... 把……转变为……
10. compare... with... 把……与……相比
11. find out 发现
12. work on 从事于……
Related Information
1. Facebook：中文译为“脸书”或“脸谱网”，是美国的一个社交网络服务网站，创立于2004年，总部位于美国加利福利亚州门洛帕克，主要创始人为马克·扎克伯格（Mark Zuckerberg）。
2. Datalogix：这是一家提供数字化市场营销数据服务的公司。Datalogix将线下消费者的消费数据和数字化市场营销连接起来，可以跟踪广告，了解它是如何影响消费者并且产生最终回报的。Datalogix拥有超过650家客户，有1 500家数据合作伙伴，跟踪着2万亿消费数据。联想、推特、Ahold Kraft和Ford都是它的客户。
3. Tide：汰渍，是全球日化龙头宝洁公司旗下著名的洗涤品牌，也是全球最大的洗衣粉品牌之一。汰渍于1946年诞生于美国，是世界上第一种合成洗衣粉。由于汰渍的诞生，结束了人类历史上长达2 000余年的皂洗时代，把人类从繁重的洗衣工作中解放出来，为机洗时代的到来提供了条件。汰渍于1995年进入中国。
4. Procter ＆ Gamble：宝洁公司，简称P&G，总部位于美国俄亥俄州辛辛那提，是一家美国消费日用品生产商，也是目前全球最大的日用品公司之一。
5. Kroger：美国克罗格公司，是具有百年历史的名店之一。它历史悠久，围绕着市场消费需求的变化，不断地进行创新，创造了世界零售百年史上的若干个第一。2002年以501亿美元的销售额排名《财富》世界500强第56位，2003年以518亿美元的销售额排名第51位，成为继沃尔玛、家居仓储之后的美国第三大零售集团。