
How to Use Facebook Ads in the Search for a Missing Person - trahn
https://hackernoon.com/how-to-use-facebook-ads-in-the-search-for-a-missing-person-a044ca068671
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thaumaturgy
You should check with the department or officer in charge of your case before
doing this, unless you have good reason to believe they're botching it. The
public is certainly a resource that's considered in missing persons cases, but
it has disadvantages and the people in charge of the case may not be involving
the public for good reason.

Depending on their local rules, they may be obligated to investigate any leads
coming in from the public, and that can become a massive drain on resources
that would be better spent on following up leads they may already have.
Psychics, intuitives, and other "helpers" are kind of a pain in the ass this
way. Depending on the case, if somebody says, "I've helped find four other
people, and last night I dreamt that so-and-so was alive, and cold, and in a
big steel pipe in the woods", then the people in charge of the case get to
spend a bunch of resources checking out culverts in forested areas. Public
missing persons cases always bring out these folks.

If LEO does want to get the public involved, they often have even better tools
available, including reverse-911 text alerts.

They may also be operating with a different set of information than they're
sharing with you, and may be withholding some information for good reason.
They may already have a working theory and _not_ releasing details about what
the missing person was last seen wearing may be helpful for sorting out good
leads from bad ones.

All that said, law enforcement isn't infallible and mistakes are made in
missing persons cases, even by well-intentioned and experienced people. And
certainly the grief and frustration and helplessness experienced by friends
and family during cases like this should be given more consideration than
perhaps it usually is.

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olliej
Also remember if you see a poster or ad claiming to be searching for a missing
person you should ignore the contact number - contact police directly if you
think you have information, as claiming someone is missing is a frequent tool
of abusers trying to find a hiding victim.

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fabiandesimone
So this is basically a how to do geo fenced ads in FB. Ok cool.

But, if you run an ad that has the word "YOU" you're going to have a bad time
in FB either by ads getting rejected or the AI straight banning your account.

*: I run well over 7 figures a year in fb.

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diazon
>if you run an ad that has the word "YOU" you're going to have a bad time in
FB

Why?

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kjax
It's commonly used in clickbait headlines. If you're using an ad account that
Facebook doesn't consider very trustworthy, you'll have a difficult time
getting ads with certain attention-grabbing words approved.

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pythonpatrol
I used facebook ads to find my two missing dogs and it worked. Within 2 days
my dogs were back home.

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m4tthumphrey
My friend did this for me when we lost our family cat. Unfortunately we didn't
find him (he was quite old) but the amount of awareness and people who saw and
engaged with the adverts where incredible. We still get people asking today if
we ever did find him.

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a_imho
tldr; it is an ad for the authors saas

 _Many people already use Facebook posts to raise awareness, but the effect
here is that they mostly get shared within their own circles and not
necessarily in the location, where it makes sense. With Facebook ads your able
to target exactly the people in the search area and ask them to not only keep
an eye out for your missing loved one, but also to spread the word.
Essentially, you are paying Facebook to show the post to the right people in a
timely way._

 _Most of the money goes towards Facebook ads. We take a 10-20% cut for our
services._

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albertgoeswoof
Services like this should be pro bono, and facebook should also support this.

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qrbLPHiKpiux
Hell no. It’s the principle of the matter.

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TheSpiceIsLife
What if it turns out that missing person cases that are advertised on Facebook
are resolved, on average, at a faster rate, or some such.

Would you still object if outcomes were objectively better?

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johnchristopher
Does the end justify the means ?

