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Why I Work on Ads

jefftk.com

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Re: Why I Work on Ads

#651

Post by jonas21 »

kingsuper20 wrote: post #61

The online ad business generally mystifies me. While an awful lot of the internet, especially the surveillance advertising part, looks to be the greatest misallocation of engineering (and other) talent in the history of the world, ya gotta ask about the efficacy. The only reasonably accurate targeting I've ever run into is the occasional ad for something I just browsed on Amazon. I've never clicked on an internet ad.…

Which do you think is more likely?

a. A $300 billion dollar industry is based entirely on a delusion.

b. You are an outlier.

Re: Why I Work on Ads

#652

Post by traek »

adriand wrote: post #647

The author writes that you can either pay with money or you can “pay with your attention”. What’s left unsaid is the cost of that attention. I believe that cost is very high and it isn’t just ads, it’s the design of countless products including social media sites, games and even the site you’re reading this on right now. It’s all designed to extract as much attention as possible, and the cost is people’s ability to c…

That's not a feature of advertising as a business model, it's just a feature of growth-focused businesses. The same forces apply to products that you pay for with money. For a very obvious example, just look at Candy Crush.

Re: Why I Work on Ads

#654

Post by mc32 »

mediaman wrote: post #645
kingsuper20 wrote: post #61

The online ad business generally mystifies me. While an awful lot of the internet, especially the surveillance advertising part, looks to be the greatest misallocation of engineering (and other) talent in the history of the world, ya gotta ask about the efficacy. The only reasonably accurate targeting I've ever run into is the occasional ad for something I just browsed on Amazon. I've never clicked on an internet ad.…

One of the interesting things about advertising is that nobody really knows if it works, and there's a growing body of evidence that it largely doesn't work. We are sold on the idea that they work, because someone clicks this ad, we track them, they buy the product, and we attribute the sale to that ad. But we don't know whether the customer would have bought anyway. And some research suggests that, for the most part…

Organic mentions are the best ads; aside from that dedicated niche review sites which I’ll hit to look at the review and the comments.

On the other hand, brand recognition I do believe has value but is hard to quantify.

I also never click on an internet ad EXCEPT if it links to a price -not to buy.

Re: Why I Work on Ads

#655

Post by katzgrau »

mediaman wrote: post #645
kingsuper20 wrote: post #61

The online ad business generally mystifies me. While an awful lot of the internet, especially the surveillance advertising part, looks to be the greatest misallocation of engineering (and other) talent in the history of the world, ya gotta ask about the efficacy. The only reasonably accurate targeting I've ever run into is the occasional ad for something I just browsed on Amazon. I've never clicked on an internet ad.…

One of the interesting things about advertising is that nobody really knows if it works, and there's a growing body of evidence that it largely doesn't work. We are sold on the idea that they work, because someone clicks this ad, we track them, they buy the product, and we attribute the sale to that ad. But we don't know whether the customer would have bought anyway. And some research suggests that, for the most part…

Digital marketing performance is increasingly measurable and there's more data than ever proving that it can be extremely effective.

You can certainly waste a lot of money doing it too. Getting the right message in front of the right user at the right time is a lot harder than people think it is.

The above is where there's a lot of smoke and mirrors in ad tech. But for advertising as a whole, it's not a massive industry because it doesn't work.

Re: Why I Work on Ads

#656

Post by cm2012 »

katzgrau wrote: post #655
mediaman wrote: post #645

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One of the interesting things about advertising is that nobody really knows if it works, and there's a growing body of evidence that it largely doesn't work. We are sold on the idea that they work, because someone clicks this ad, we track them, they buy the product, and we attribute the sale to that ad. But we don't know whether the customer would have bought anyway. And some research suggests that, for the most part…

Digital marketing performance is increasingly measurable and there's more data than ever proving that it can be extremely effective. You can certainly waste a lot of money doing it too. Getting the right message in front of the right user at the right time is a lot harder than people think it is. The above is where there's a lot of smoke and mirrors in ad tech. But for advertising as a whole, it's not a massive indus…

Yeah, it's incredibly easy to prove it works. Incrementally can get hard at scale but that's a different question.

Re: Why I Work on Ads

#657

Post by OJFord »

bnralt wrote: post #609
joshuamorton wrote: post #501

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think you're missing that content creators (whether they be small or large) need to be able to subsist off of their work. This is especially true if we want high quality content. So the dichotomy is only false if you assume people are willing to accept "stop consuming content" which, by and large, they aren't.

The best content I get these days are from people who create content for free (hobbyists with personal sites, discussions on web forums, ad free podcasts, etc.). Getting rid of ads would make this content a lot easier to find, as it would get rid of all the SEO spam that clutters up the internet at the moment.

I wholeheartedly agree, but we are probably 'unusual' in that regard. 'Normal' is probably something (depressingly) closer to 'from #influencers who are like omg so down to Earth in their product recommendations and #lifehacks'...

Re: Why I Work on Ads

#659

Post by smsm42 »

version_five wrote: post #524
smsm42 wrote: post #508

I notice immediately two main points are wrong: > Minimal friction. Fair enough when the site had one ad. Pretty much no site had one ad now. They have lots of them, which is significantly slowing down loading the page. And if you add all tracking and surveillance code, it can inflate a simple site into megabytes of data. There are common sites that load literally hundreds of outside URLs for ad and surveillance mech…

> Ad costs are regressive too Not to mention how they disproportionately affect "non tech savvy" groups. I almost never see ads, especially not the really obnoxious ones, and I imagine it's the same for most people here. Meanwhile elderly people are being inundated with ads that look like forms and buttons and warnings, and getting tricked into doing who knows what. Even if that's not financially regressive, it still…

Right. I am adblocked up to my ears, but when I use a new device or somebody's else device, I am always startled how bad it is with the ads. I'm like "people, how do you live like this? It's literally impossible to do anything!". But people get used to that. Annoyed in the best case, defrauded very commonly.

Re: Why I Work on Ads

#660

Post by ThatMedicIsASpy »

Datsundere wrote: post #590
andrepd wrote: post #570

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you have a position on a better alternative business model Sure! Thanks for asking. One idea I like is this: you pay a small, fixed subscription on top of your internet bill. This amount is then given proportionally to the services you visit. This is nice for several reasons: even a small amount (~3-5$) gives a similar or higher revenue for content creators than ads do (a very rough back-of-the-envelope estimate…

Ads should not exist period. Youtube worked without ads before and it can work without ads. I don't need to be paying a premium to use a service. Why are ads the way to generate revenue? Like I don't care about buying a coffee grinder. Ads not only help contribute to needless purchases but also directly affect the environment cause of that.

youtube works without ads sure that means you the channel provider pays for the hosting and bandwidth.

tell me how you want to pay for 500h++ of video uploaded to a platform every minute

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