While poking around Facebook this afternoon, desperately pondering which photo to select as my new profile picture, I noticed an interesting ad pop up. It read (and I quote): “Like if you are lesbian.”

Now let me preface this explanation by saying I don’t have anything against anyone from the LGBT community. In fact, Facebook probably thought to place that ad on my page because I am a fan of some gay rights pages, including the Human Rights Campaign and the It Gets Better Project. However, I also have indicated on my profile that I am interested in men. Does Facebook think that the “interested in” status is merely a façade to hide my true identity? Call me crazy, but I think that’s digging a little deep. Why would they advertise something to me when there may be conflicting signals? Also, does liking a gay rights page automatically mean you are gay? In the real world, absolutely not. But in Facebook Land where they try to scan your interests and appeal to you on a personal level when advertising to you, apparently it does.

I also noticed another problem with Facebook ads earlier this week. I have a habit of hiding people from my news feed if I don’t have the guts to just unfriend them but don’t necessarily care to know what they’re doing in their everyday lives — or if they are just on the path to un-friend status. I noticed there was a suggestion for a particular music group, and the first friend it listed as liking said band was a person I hid from my news feed about a month ago — we’ll call him Jerry. Now, I don’t really care to know what’s going on in Jerry’s life, hence why I hid him from my news feed but decided not to pull the trigger all the way and unfriend him. If I decided to hide Jerry from my news feed, why would Facebook think I want to know that Jerry and 20 other friends like this band? I don’t care who Jerry likes. At all. Why choose him as the lure to make me like said band? Why not mention one of the 20 other friends who like this band?

While Facebook advertising is slowly gaining popularity and becoming more selective about which ads are displayed to which users, apparently there is still a lot of work to be done. From a marketing and social media standpoint, these flaws might actually hurt marketing campaigns if they target the wrong people. Going back to the ad targeting gay women, if the business or organization that sponsored this ad was more specific when deciding whom to target, they could increase their chances of reaching their ideal audience. This organization likely targets women who are fans of gay rights pages, but doesn’t go so far to ensure these women also are romantically interested in other women (or at least not listed as interested in men). My scenario is a good example of how they might reach some of their target audience, but they are still appealing to people who are not interested in what the organization has to offer. For the ad suggesting I like a particular band, what if I hated Jerry’s guts and had a strong negative connection to seeing his name? Could that connection in some way be linked to any product or service he is linked with through Facebook ads?

These are pretty big “What if” questions to go off of, and Facebook ads still have a long way to go before they are extremely accurate. But these two examples are just some food for thought for marketers trying to use these ads to reach their target audience. While you may be reaching some of the people you desire, you’re also reaching the Jerry-hating, non-lesbians like myself who are a bit perplexed as to why you think I might like your page.