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Ask HN: What is going on in the ad-tech market?

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Ask HN: What is going on in the ad-tech market?

#1

Post by in_vestor »

The NYT ran a story this week about deterioration ad quality.

It’s obvious to everyone here that services like google search, social media, and YouTube have had user experience vastly degraded in the hunt for ad revenue.

Apps and sites that should have long ago perished are able to linger on like ghosts, endangering user data (MySpace still exists).

And yet this earnings quarter, we learned that companies are doing better than we expected. Meta is growing its user base and google is increasing its clicks. Despite the wishes of the media, twitter is doing OK. Dilapidated app companies continue to raise funds.

What is going on? What would cause the ad-funded ecosystem to fundamentally change?

Looking for insight from people on the front lines.

Re: Ask HN: What is going on in the ad-tech market?

#2

Post by vmoore »

> What would cause the ad-funded ecosystem to fundamentally change?

I don't have the stats, but AD blockers & tracking blockers are a real spanner in the works for AD-Tech. I imagine blocker popularity exponentially increases as each year passes, meaning at some point they will make a substantial dent in AD-supported sites who rely on income from ADs to stay online.

Google has so much data on people they can essentially read people's minds, so they are doing fine in regards to targeting people properly. They have a tight ship and it works (For now). Same for Facebook, although Apple's tracking opt-out apparently is hurting their business.

Re: Ask HN: What is going on in the ad-tech market?

#3

Post by rpmw »

vmoore wrote: post #2

> What would cause the ad-funded ecosystem to fundamentally change? I don't have the stats, but AD blockers & tracking blockers are a real spanner in the works for AD-Tech. I imagine blocker popularity exponentially increases as each year passes, meaning at some point they will make a substantial dent in AD-supported sites who rely on income from ADs to stay online. Google has so much data on people they can essentia…

I work in the industry and ad blockers are not a significant concern. It's a cat and mouse game for sure, but the vast vast majority of traffic is doing nothing to block ads.

I guess an immeasurable userbase's potential spend is hard to measure against total realized ad spend, but in my corner of the world traffic, users, and revenue are only increasing YoY.

Re: Ask HN: What is going on in the ad-tech market?

#4

Post by s1k3s »

rpmw wrote: post #3
vmoore wrote: post #2

> What would cause the ad-funded ecosystem to fundamentally change? I don't have the stats, but AD blockers & tracking blockers are a real spanner in the works for AD-Tech. I imagine blocker popularity exponentially increases as each year passes, meaning at some point they will make a substantial dent in AD-supported sites who rely on income from ADs to stay online. Google has so much data on people they can essentia…

I work in the industry and ad blockers are not a significant concern. It's a cat and mouse game for sure, but the vast vast majority of traffic is doing nothing to block ads. I guess an immeasurable userbase's potential spend is hard to measure against total realized ad spend, but in my corner of the world traffic, users, and revenue are only increasing YoY.

Weird, when I worked in the industry, AdBlock was a "30% revenue loss" concern. Can you detail why that's no longer the case?

Re: Ask HN: What is going on in the ad-tech market?

#5

Post by rpmw »

s1k3s wrote: post #4
rpmw wrote: post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I work in the industry and ad blockers are not a significant concern. It's a cat and mouse game for sure, but the vast vast majority of traffic is doing nothing to block ads. I guess an immeasurable userbase's potential spend is hard to measure against total realized ad spend, but in my corner of the world traffic, users, and revenue are only increasing YoY.

Weird, when I worked in the industry, AdBlock was a "30% revenue loss" concern. Can you detail why that's no longer the case?

Interesting, could be my particular market. I work mostly in the video space, not display. I imagine the media matters too--I'm involved with higher quality media owners.

Re: Ask HN: What is going on in the ad-tech market?

#7

Post by in_vestor »

jeffbee wrote: post #6

How did you figure that Twitter is "doing OK"? Reports from this morning suggest they have lost two thirds of their revenue since October.

I mean the site hasn’t collapsed like everyone thought it would 2 months ago. But besides that, I would be astounded if they have actually lost 50%+ of revenue. Keep in mind that few people would actually know those financials, and they would be reluctant to share. Also, I’m no musk fanboy, but the level of hatred and doom mongering in the press right now is…weird, to say the least.

Re: Ask HN: What is going on in the ad-tech market?

#8

Post by in_vestor »

rpmw wrote: post #5
s1k3s wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Weird, when I worked in the industry, AdBlock was a "30% revenue loss" concern. Can you detail why that's no longer the case?

Interesting, could be my particular market. I work mostly in the video space, not display. I imagine the media matters too--I'm involved with higher quality media owners.

Can you explain why YouTube ads seem so scammy and low quality? Or why I can watch two hours of Peacock and see the same car insurance commercial 10 times for the company I already use for my car insurance?

These are two examples of an unhealthy industry that, as you say, still seems content to burn money.

Re: Ask HN: What is going on in the ad-tech market?

#9

Post by mejutoco »

rpmw wrote: post #3
vmoore wrote: post #2

> What would cause the ad-funded ecosystem to fundamentally change? I don't have the stats, but AD blockers & tracking blockers are a real spanner in the works for AD-Tech. I imagine blocker popularity exponentially increases as each year passes, meaning at some point they will make a substantial dent in AD-supported sites who rely on income from ADs to stay online. Google has so much data on people they can essentia…

I work in the industry and ad blockers are not a significant concern. It's a cat and mouse game for sure, but the vast vast majority of traffic is doing nothing to block ads. I guess an immeasurable userbase's potential spend is hard to measure against total realized ad spend, but in my corner of the world traffic, users, and revenue are only increasing YoY.

While not an ad-blocker, I want to add that updates to iOS privacy defaults were very present a 1-2 years ago in the marketing tech community.

Re: Ask HN: What is going on in the ad-tech market?

#10

Post by mejutoco »

in_vestor wrote: post #7
jeffbee wrote: post #6

How did you figure that Twitter is "doing OK"? Reports from this morning suggest they have lost two thirds of their revenue since October.

I mean the site hasn’t collapsed like everyone thought it would 2 months ago. But besides that, I would be astounded if they have actually lost 50%+ of revenue. Keep in mind that few people would actually know those financials, and they would be reluctant to share. Also, I’m no musk fanboy, but the level of hatred and doom mongering in the press right now is…weird, to say the least.

I mean, it is easier not to collapse with long periods of not being able to post. People were using the scheduled post-one-minute-later to be able to post anything at all.
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