It’s popular to think that Facebook knows everything about you, but it’s actually far from the truth. As a foreigner living in Japan, the ads shown to be are usually quite irrelevant. For example, today I was targeted by an advertisement for English conversation lessons:
I guess it is a step up from being targeted by ads for Chinese counterfeiters. The situation in the US is not necessarily any better. When I visited last month, I was targeted by all kinds of ads that probably would be better directed at women:
In this case it’s presumably the advertiser, or whichever agency they’re using, that is doing a poor job. Facebook allows you to target your ads to women only, in which case you’d get a higher click through rate for these ads as men wouldn’t see your ads for maxi tee dresses and handbags.