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VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

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Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#91

Post by archon810 »

bernarpa wrote: post #16

I manage ads in several mobile apps and I've chosen to disable full screen video ads. Still Google's AdMob mail hints keep recommending to activate them as well in order to get more revenue. More revenue for me and more revenue for the ad provider, that's the only reason.

I'm on a war path with these video ads, but advertising networks don't give us enough (or any) tools to disable serving them. Most of the time, it's either all or nothing. Some let you disable certain types of ads, including AdSense (it has a VPAID checkbox now that I think about it), but when I reached out to AdX people about it, they were not helpful so far (their recommendation was to turn off anything that says "video" in the OptIn tab, except that does not get rid of these VPAID ads).

sovrn was a network I dropped for this very reason - they kept serving VPAID ads and didn't give me a way to turn them off.

The list goes on.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#92

Post by a3n »

_Understated_ wrote: post #14

In most walks of life we happily pay for something that provides us value: Cars, phones, shoes etc. I don't see the web/app ecosystem as any different although owners (that's app creators and web site owners/creators) feel they can make more by selling our lives to a third party - That's not something I want to happen with my details I will block your system for doing so. If I feel your site/app is not providing me w…

I pay for access to NYT, Economist and Guardian. And I still block their ads. I expect them to eventually kick me out or charge more, because I'm sure my subscription fee isn't covering their profit goals.

Even if I was paying full fee for these things to be dropped on my physical door step every day, there would still be ads, only they'd be static and safe.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#93

Post by archon810 »

Hondor wrote: post #88
archon810 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't think it's a fair comparison, but I get your point. I am not saying the user should know to blame the advertiser instead of the publisher, I'm saying it really sucks that the publisher is the one getting thrown under the bus and blamed for what is the advertiser's fault and it sucks for us publishers. The suggested solution to "figure it out" and "find other advertising networks" doesn't work because almost a…

Only "almost all"? Why not use the few that don't? Is it because your revenue from them will be lower? Maybe it's lower because they aren't forcing these profitable ads at your users. That really does sound like the publisher's fault for choosing the most profitable ad network and neglecting the user's experience. Any "good quality" ad network is bound to pay less, otherwise they'd all be doing it.

I'm actually not aware of any except for maybe http://decknetwork.net, which is very selective in accepting publishers and only serves certain verticals.

And yeah, if the revenue from some other obscure network is 10% of AdSense, and a good business becomes not viable, it's not good for anyone.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#94

Post by arca_vorago »

What ever happened to just offering a product that is in high demand and charging for it, and ignoring advertisers?

There are a lot more cancers of the advertising industry than just those listed too. In particular I would say the news industry which is a shadow of its former self, is a great example. It doesnt matter what major news site I go to, theres a big half, full, middle page popup that requires an x yo be hit, or wait for this ad, or some wierd hyperlink hijacking bullshit, or any number of other douchebaggery which tells me the site considers the ad network a bigger customer than the reader.

I'm mostly talking about on the phone, on desktop, with a combination of ublock origin and others this is greatly reduced, but only a small subset of the population uses those.

Our country is in what amounts to a constitutional democratic crisis of epic proportions but ads are interfering with citizens informing themselves due to recursive feedback loops between publishers and advertisers.

Dont even get me started on how the standard SV business model I see is: create something semi novel, get a bunch of users, sell company, new owners exploit users for advertising, ride the wave until the crash.

Or how people pay money for cable but still sit through 18 minutes of brainwashing, mindnumbing commercials for the priviledge of paying!

Its a big ol racket basket of bullshit. Cancer barely even begins to describe it. How about stage 4 metasticised cancer of the everything.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#95

Post by franciscop »

spiderfarmer wrote: post #53
franciscop wrote: post #6

If someone needs to have an ad solution to have their website running it is NOT a business that should exist. It's like we say restaurant owners should support the mafia because otherwise they cannot make money in the neighborhood. Or any other criminal(ish) activity. "Without advertising we wouldn't be able to run this" MAYBE it really means you shouldn't run it at all, but don't force advertising(+malware) down you…

Do you mean publishers as well as advertisers?

I mean publishers

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#96

Post by archon810 »

dhimes wrote: post #71
chrismbarr wrote: post #37

One thing to note: When the developer tools are opened Chrome will temporarily disable the cache. When the video loops it would normally just reach into cache and re-play the file that was already downloaded. However, with devtools open it will probably re-download all the files again.

Excellent point.

Except the part where it's not.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#97

Post by jarnix »

mrweasel wrote: post #70
jkot wrote: post #55

> I'm at 53MB downloaded and 5559 requests. That was not advertisement, but malware. It is probably running DDos attack on some website. We should block that. Anyway, at ancient days I surfed with i486 on 14.4 kbps modem. Not much has changed since.

>That was not advertisement, but malware. I doubt it. It more likely that someone wants to know how long the reader/users of a page are exposed to their ads. Some idiot savant then figured "Hey, we'll play a video and download the bits in chucks. Then we know how much of the videos was played, and that's the amount of time they spend on the page."

It's just that the advertiser, the agency, the ad network, another ad network, and another agency are tracking the time that you are watching the video. Plus, sometimes, they track every second or the code is really dirty and does this kind of crazy number of http (tracking) requests. 5000 requests is above the average though :) But I saw recently an ad like that, and it was like 100% of my surf on a website.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#98

Post by angry-hacker »

Faaak wrote: post #74
anexprogrammer wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But a lot of niche forums - games, hobbies and so forth are unlikely to monetise any other way. Should they die too? Or have to rely on a rich benefactor deciding to host a motorcycling (or whatever) site? Few are going to pay a subscription to chat on a Civilization or fishing forum a few hours a week. Advertising should be the appropriate model for this. Trouble is it's being poisoned by the greed of Buzzfeed and W…

Come on, hosting a simple website/forum is really cheap nowadays. Some websites (wikipedia being the main one) simply ask for donations at the end of the year.

Wikipedia is in different position than other sites.

Every time someone posts a link to paywall, everyone discusses how to bypass it. And the people reading HN are wealthy Silicon Valley people. Well, not me but you get the idea.

Everyone talking about charging people instead ads - have you ever tried it? Tell me your success stories.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#99

Post by staticelf »

creshal wrote: post #68
rm999 wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I used to work in the industry - mobile ads can be quite targeted. My guess is apps like clash of clans appeal to a wide range of people and are backed by heavy ad spending. This means a wide variety of people will be targeted with their ads. Doesn't mean ads arent targeted. E.g. a 25 year old white programmer probably isn't getting Spanish language ads, or ads targeting new mothers, or ads for retirement communities…

> Doesn't mean ads arent targeted. E.g. a 25 year old white programmer probably isn't getting Spanish language ads, or ads targeting new mothers, or ads for retirement communities. You'd be surprised. I bought a travel sewing kit five years ago on Amazon, and ever since I'm getting advertisements and "recommendations" for handbags, makeup and high-heeled shoes. It's so blatantly sexist and wrong it's almost funny aga…

Is it though? Just because you aren't interested in these other recommendations and connected ads doesn't mean the wide majority who purchases sewing kits aren't as well.

If this "blantantly sexist" ads were wrong no one would purchase such ads. Sure they may be stereotypical, but that's what targeted ads are all about, creating data driven stereotypes that later can be used for increasing sales and relativity.

Re: VPAID ads destroy performance and are still served by major ad networks

#100

Post by archon810 »

jkot wrote: post #65
archon810 wrote: post #59

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Did you look at the pings it was sending to its stats servers? It's not malware, some evil assholes actually created this VPAID concept with its players, trackers, and garbage performance.

If it quacks like a duck...

This logic doesn't make sense. If an advertiser willingly pings itself to a ridiculous degree does not mean it's a conspiracy to bring a server (its own?) down.
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