I think FB is being disingenuous. If ads are less targeted then the cost of impressions is going to fall, and so "small business" will be able to buy more ads for the same price.
If there are constraints in supply (ie, not many places to show ads) then I'd be wrong and the price would go up. Maybe someone on HN who knows more than me can project this.
But in any case it certainly isn't entirely obvious to me that "small business" will necessarily suffer. It's not like ads can no longer be targeted; they just can't be _microtargeted_, meaning the very big spenders (like political parties) are going to spend less. But I struggle to see how this will significantly impact traditional, product based advertising.
It doesn’t really work that way. Most publishers have limited inventories of ad space and people spend only a limited time on their properties. They’re not incentivized to reduce prices for what is already a scarce commodity: people’s attention. Bigger brands have HUGE media budgets. So smaller brands can compete only by making more targeted ads.
If there are constraints in supply (ie, not many places to show ads) then I'd be wrong and the price would go up. Maybe someone on HN who knows more than me can project this.
But in any case it certainly isn't entirely obvious to me that "small business" will necessarily suffer. It's not like ads can no longer be targeted; they just can't be _microtargeted_, meaning the very big spenders (like political parties) are going to spend less. But I struggle to see how this will significantly impact traditional, product based advertising.