I suppose it's not that big of a mystery, seeing as I've listed myself as a fan of Gilt Groupe on Facebook and this new service, One King's Lane, is a down-to-the-letter copycat of the original "exclusive online sample sales" site, except it's for home decor rather than designer fashion. But it is so weird, as someone who works on online ads but who never clicked on ads before going to Google, to 1) see an ad, 2) realize it was targeted to me with laser precision, 3) click on it knowing that I was making Facebook money (I even bought that call-to-action!), 4) like the landing page and see that it was relevant to me, and 5) actually fill out the form and become a member.
The only thing left is for me to actually buy something on One King's Lane with my new $25 credit, thus becoming a backend conversion success story. Somewhere, there is a freshly graduated marketing strategist is looking at his/her numbers and celebrating the number of conversions in his FB ads account.
I mean, in my job I manipulate people all the time into this very conversion process. I know that's the nature of the beast, that this whole online ads ecosystem exists to bring value to both sellers and users. And to be sure, if I wind up using my $25 credit to buy some beautiful home stuff that I love, then both parties have come out ahead. It's just that, as an educated user, I can't help but feel a bit manipulated myself right now.