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Google introduces 'Customer Match' – target web ads to email addresses

adwords.blogspot.com

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Re: Google introduces 'Customer Match' – target web ads to email addresses

#31

Post by emidln »

gk1 wrote: post #7
baconner wrote: post #3

Get ready for ads to start addressing you directly by name and doing other like things to get your attention. Google isn't usually _too_ overt about these sort of things but the less savory ad networks could get really unpleasant. "Hey there George Thompson, click to see one weird trick to hide your arrest records from your wife Mary"

As another posted commented, there will be a minimum list size to prevent this sort of thing. For example, Twitter already allows targeting to specific individuals, but the list minimum is 500 (if I'm not mistaken).

    def scumbag_targeted_campaign_builder(accounts):
        for name, users in groupby(accounts, key=lambda x: x['first_name']):
            users = list(users)
            while len(users)
Some variation of this is pretty easy, and likely will become common.

Re: Google introduces 'Customer Match' – target web ads to email addresses

#33

Post by x0x0 »

baconner wrote: post #3

Get ready for ads to start addressing you directly by name and doing other like things to get your attention. Google isn't usually _too_ overt about these sort of things but the less savory ad networks could get really unpleasant. "Hey there George Thompson, click to see one weird trick to hide your arrest records from your wife Mary"

Some ads already have that much info about you if you're being advertised to because of retargeting/remarketing. Eg when you bail from a site with something in your shopping cart and that item follows you around the internet.

That said, this is a great reason not to browse the internet with logged in google email. That was always the flaw in the firefox 3rd party cookie blocking debacle: it would have been an enormous gift to fb, google, and twitter.

Re: Google introduces 'Customer Match' – target web ads to email addresses

#34

Post by swalsh »

baconner wrote: post #3

Get ready for ads to start addressing you directly by name and doing other like things to get your attention. Google isn't usually _too_ overt about these sort of things but the less savory ad networks could get really unpleasant. "Hey there George Thompson, click to see one weird trick to hide your arrest records from your wife Mary"

Which is kind of half pointless. I see ad's all day long that are half relevant to me. I rarely click on them. Just because they start screaming my name doesn't make me more likely to click.

The most effective advertisements aren't ads. Most of the time I use a product or service it's because I saw someone on here or someone I know talking about it.

Re: Google introduces 'Customer Match' – target web ads to email addresses

#35

Post by chipperyman573 »

tehwebguy wrote: post #10
TomAnthony wrote: post #5

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So some more digging and it seems there will be a minimum of 1000 users per group [1], so we aren't quite yet at the point of targeting individuals. [1] https://support.google.com/adwords/answer/6276125

And it says "Active visitors", makes me think it might not work with 1 real address and 999 fake ones

Well, google doesn't know if people are active on non-google sites. And they couldn't tell advertisers or people would be able to upload 999 fake emails and 1 real one and tell if they're an active google user.

Re: Google introduces 'Customer Match' – target web ads to email addresses

#36

Post by kristofferR »

swalsh wrote: post #34
baconner wrote: post #3

Get ready for ads to start addressing you directly by name and doing other like things to get your attention. Google isn't usually _too_ overt about these sort of things but the less savory ad networks could get really unpleasant. "Hey there George Thompson, click to see one weird trick to hide your arrest records from your wife Mary"

Which is kind of half pointless. I see ad's all day long that are half relevant to me. I rarely click on them. Just because they start screaming my name doesn't make me more likely to click. The most effective advertisements aren't ads. Most of the time I use a product or service it's because I saw someone on here or someone I know talking about it.

> Just because they start screaming my name doesn't make me more likely to click.

I suspect you are a relatively rare border case, then.

Re: Google introduces 'Customer Match' – target web ads to email addresses

#37

Post by patrickaljord »

Animats wrote: post #23

The article, quoting Google's PR: "Google is in a unique position to connect consumers with your business in the most relevant ways. Whether they’re searching on Google, checking promotions on Gmail, or watching videos on YouTube, we can deliver the most relevant information based on what they’re doing, wherever they are, when they’re looking, and on any device they’re using. Today, we’re building on these capabiliti…

> Log out of Google, now. Delete all their cookies. And get off Gmail.

By that logic you should also delete your facebook, twitter, mobile subscription, ISP etc.

Re: Google introduces 'Customer Match' – target web ads to email addresses

#38

Post by JackC »

emidln wrote: post #31
gk1 wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As another posted commented, there will be a minimum list size to prevent this sort of thing. For example, Twitter already allows targeting to specific individuals, but the list minimum is 500 (if I'm not mistaken).

def scumbag_targeted_campaign_builder(accounts): for name, users in groupby(accounts, key=lambda x: x['first_name']): users = list(users) while len(users) Some variation of this is pretty easy, and likely will become common.

I wonder how easy it is. Google says they require 1000 "Active visitors." So you need to not only create 1000 fake accounts to target a single real individual, but run 1000 undetected clickfraud bots (and then pay out on your own clickfraud). Not sure of the current state of the clickfraud arms race, but maybe there are cheaper and easier ways of snooping?

Re: Google introduces 'Customer Match' – target web ads to email addresses

#39

Post by NearAP »

bamboo_7 wrote: post #29
NearAP wrote: post #28

The article gave gave an example of 'Rewards program' of a company. Using that example, most rewards program give you the option not to receive 'promotional emails' from them. Does this mean such companies will also not upload to Google, the email of someone who has opted not to receive promotional emails? If the companies don't do that, how can a user 'opt out' of not receiving such targeted advertising?

Doesn't mean that at all. Reward program would just be an example of a not-necessarily-web company that has a list of customer emails. Nothing prevents them from adding your email to that list. The scary thing is this means Google is targeting and following us on an account basis, not just an anonymous advertiser id. If only there was some universally accepted 'do not track' feature....

I'm curious - is there any statistic around the number of people who browse while signed in to their google accounts?Personally, I don't do that. I make a conscious effort to be signed out when browsing but I've always wondered if majority of people are like me

Re: Google introduces 'Customer Match' – target web ads to email addresses

#40

Post by kristofferR »

ceejayoz wrote: post #20
gk1 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I should've been more specific. Twitter requires a list of 500 _recognized_ emails.

What's stopping me from setting up 500 recognized emails?

For this Google offering they're likely to use the same tech that powers their new CAPTCHA-less reCaptcha.
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