Apple’s Ad-Targeting Crackdown Shakes Up Ad Market • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple’s Ad-Targeting Crackdown Shakes Up Ad Market

#341

Post by nottorp » Thu, Dec 12, 2019, 7:52 AM UTC

manigandham wrote: post #331

nottorp wrote: post #318

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually before I was ad blocking, two large local electronics stores did the same stupidity. I bought some expensive electronic toy, then was followed for a week by google ads for the exact same electronic toy. Which i had just bought. And was expensive enough to not buy another. And the ads were for the EXACT SAME STORE i had just bought it from. I repeat, that was before I began blocking ads. For a while I was on…

That's what I described about the ecommerce system being different than the ad network. Products usually have their own pages where you can easily be added to a 'interested' segment. It's very hard to remove you from that segment on a consolidated check out page that would need some backend mapping with the products you bought and the removal pixels for each product and ad network, along with lots of other issues. It…

So they're okay with me considering them stupid? :)

As the customer, I don't care how hard or easy it is. I can imagine how it would be implemented, but 99% of the world population can't.

Note that they never gave me ads for stuff i only looked at, only for stuff that went through my shopping cart. If it's already there, I guess it makes figuring out if i bought it or not easier?

Re: Apple’s Ad-Targeting Crackdown Shakes Up Ad Market

#342

Post by faizanbhat » Fri, Dec 13, 2019, 12:21 AM UTC

oliwarner wrote: post #232

faizanbhat wrote: post #151

As someone who worked in ad tech for half a decade, I fail to understand the fuss about cookie based targeting. We're speaking of databases mapping data to random numbers stored in a file that can easily be deleted. The real issue is ad targeting by a handful of large companies that have personally identifiable information. It's not like cookie based targeting is very effective either. It's very difficult to get cook…

> It's not like cookie based targeting is very effective either. It's very difficult to get cookie based ad targeting right Tell that to the likes of Amazon and Ebay. Their cookie-based advertising is extremely effective. They not only get to advertise things at you that they already know you like, they also learn about other things you like by knowing what websites and content you're viewing. Why are we worried abou…

Amazon, Ebay, Walmart, etc. have persistent cookies. They are mapped to your profile in their database. If you delete the cookie, it reappears the next time you sign in. These companies can collect vast amounts of data on you, which allows their targeting to become highly effective over time.

But these companies are few and far between. Most ad tech companies have nowhere near this quality of data or access to users.

Re: Apple’s Ad-Targeting Crackdown Shakes Up Ad Market

#343

Post by faizanbhat » Fri, Dec 13, 2019, 12:35 AM UTC

tempguy9999 wrote: post #268

faizanbhat wrote: post #151

As someone who worked in ad tech for half a decade, I fail to understand the fuss about cookie based targeting. We're speaking of databases mapping data to random numbers stored in a file that can easily be deleted. The real issue is ad targeting by a handful of large companies that have personally identifiable information. It's not like cookie based targeting is very effective either. It's very difficult to get cook…

Let's rephrase that > I fail to understand the fuss about cookie based targeting ...because he... > worked in ad tech for half a decade, To continue > It's not like cookie based targeting is very effective either Then why's it being done? Because it doesn't work, or because it does? > Instead most companies do the bare minimum and try to make a guess that is slightly better than a coin flip Uh huh. From https://en.wi…

The fact that I worked in ad tech doesn't automatically make an advocate for ad targeting. I don't like being tracked either.

As to your question on why it's being done if it isn't effective, I believe there are two reasons for it:

1. A vast % of digital ad spend goes to a few companies that have personally identifiable information and very effective tracking. Google, FB. I did point of this exception in my comment. Frankly, these companies don't need to target you to be effective. They gather their richest data from your usage on their service.

2. As for the rest of ad tech: Media buyers at agencies tend to be fresh out of college grads. They don't fully grasp the capabilities/limitations of ad tech products, targeting effectiveness, etc. Agencies want to spend their digital budgets and not exclusively on FB, Google. They want to show that they're diversifying, innovating, etc. This IMO is how the rest of ad tech stays afloat.