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Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

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Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#201

Post by xapata »

russiasux wrote: post #168
xapata wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's an auction. The buyers are driving up prices until it's no longer profitable.

This is hard core wrong. Only the preferred buyers have access to the product that everyone wants to buy. They negotiate above and beyond the auction system and the platform obfuscates that by making it more difficult for the users who are not preferred and must participate and in the "free market" to tell why their ads perform poorly. Spoiler alert: it's because they are being sold garbage impressions while being sh…

If that's true, that demonstrates the sellers aren't exercising monopoly power to set prices artificially high. A preferred buyer means someone able to negotiate.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#202

Post by taeric »

logifail wrote: post #190
taeric wrote: post #119

Earlier quoted context omitted.

As someone that has not changed razor blades in 5ish years, I'll warn that you probably can't generalize how well a razor will work for all skin and hair types. I'm thankful that I don't have issues with mine, but I also don't recommend others change. Granted, I haven't looked at prices in a long time. I am mostly assuming not insane costs.

> Granted, I haven't looked at prices in a long time. I am mostly assuming not insane costs I'm not sure what "insane" would mean in this contect, but replacement blades for the no-name Gillette clone I bought are half the price of original Gillette ones. My week using the former showed that, for me at least, the performance of the latter really doesn't justify its price. YMMV.

I haven't bought blades in 5 years; so I don't have a gauge. I was underlining the YMMV for folks. I remember back when I was a lurker. :)

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#203

Post by woobar »

technion wrote: post #170
woobar wrote: post #89

What kind of social media ads are people getting that fits this narrative? I've counted first 10 ads on my FB feed (and I had to scroll for a while) 1 Four Seasons Hotels 2 Terra Kaffe - had to google them, $1300 Espresso Machine 3 iPhone case, according to ad reviewed by Wirecutter and MacWorld 4 Monos Carry-On Suitcase that looked like any other suitcase 5 ClubMed 6 Philips Sonicare toothbrush 7 Volvo XC90 Hybrid 8…

I'll add a data point to your search, here's my results of scrolling Facebook ads. This ignores the "suggested" posts from places like daily mail, which really, are also an ad. This list of ads looks really poor for anything claiming to be targeted. 1 the barbie movie 2 join the us military (I'm australian, and probably too old) 3 KFC 4 jb hifi. This definitely doesn't fit the narrative, this ad offers Apple hardware…

Interesting. In my case the targeting is not as bad. I.e. at least I can buy advertised products. Nothing like joining foreign army.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#204

Post by OldGuyInTheClub »

z3t4 wrote: post #167
OldGuyInTheClub wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I have to walk a lot at work. Don't know about 4 miles but I am not sitting at a desk. Rockports used to make great shoes that fit without break-in, were suitable for daily use and in the workplace, and that didn't break the bank. Can't find anything in that style anymore so I have to go with so-called athletic shoes that come in a black finish.

Try merrell. Had a pair for 20 years, happily bought a new pair last year and quality is still good.

Thanks. Didn't know about them. They have some sneakers that look like they could pass in the work environment. Intrigued by the grey soles on some of them. Remind me of the last pair of comfortable shoes I had (circa 1998) which had similar flubbery gray stuff on the sole. Put a spring in my step that I remember fondly.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#205

Post by MichaelZuo »

looping__lui wrote: post #197
MichaelZuo wrote: post #180

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Theres OPEC, theres Russia, theres Iraq, … These companies have margins >>20% whereas the advertisers barely break even. How is oil & gas relevant to digital ads?

I was relating an example from oil oligopolies with the Ads market. Social media making $$$ whereas the companies buying Ads barely breaking even is not equal to an “open efficient and free market” as the initial thread suggested.

There can exist different market dynamics in different sectors?

I'm not really sure why your trying to compare oil & gas with digital ads, it doesn't make any sense. You can't extrapolate conclusions based on the market dynamics of one to the other.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#206

Post by looping__lui »

MichaelZuo wrote: post #205
looping__lui wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was relating an example from oil oligopolies with the Ads market. Social media making $$$ whereas the companies buying Ads barely breaking even is not equal to an “open efficient and free market” as the initial thread suggested.

There can exist different market dynamics in different sectors? I'm not really sure why your trying to compare oil & gas with digital ads, it doesn't make any sense. You can't extrapolate conclusions based on the market dynamics of one to the other.

I don’t agree with how you measure market share in order to try and argue that we do not see an abuse in negotiation power by Meta et al.

Here is another oil&gas comparison: OPEC countries aren’t distorting the market in their favor, because oil is just a fraction of the total energy market (e.g., nuclear, wind, solar,…)

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#207

Post by narag »

mrweasel wrote: post #99
narag wrote: post #84

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because kids. Not that I can't understand, but that's terrible neglect. Saying no is difficult but it's the parents' duty, same as many other difficult things.

If you never say no, sure. I'd be rather surprised though if most parents haven't just said: "Screw it, get the cheap plastic car, I really don't have time for a 30 minute session of combined anger and crying right now". Personally I also sometimes make the "mistake" of letting my kid pick a toy, snack, t-shirt, and forgetting that she'll pick cheap colorful junk every single time.

30 minute session of combined anger and crying

If that's the expected outcome, it's already lost.

...and forgetting that she'll pick cheap colorful junk every single time.

Still better than expensive colorless junk :)

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#208

Post by xapata »

looping__lui wrote: post #206
MichaelZuo wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There can exist different market dynamics in different sectors? I'm not really sure why your trying to compare oil & gas with digital ads, it doesn't make any sense. You can't extrapolate conclusions based on the market dynamics of one to the other.

I don’t agree with how you measure market share in order to try and argue that we do not see an abuse in negotiation power by Meta et al. Here is another oil&gas comparison: OPEC countries aren’t distorting the market in their favor, because oil is just a fraction of the total energy market (e.g., nuclear, wind, solar,…)

> just a fraction

1/1 is a fraction. What fraction is oil of the total energy market?

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#209

Post by MichaelZuo »

looping__lui wrote: post #206
MichaelZuo wrote: post #205

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There can exist different market dynamics in different sectors? I'm not really sure why your trying to compare oil & gas with digital ads, it doesn't make any sense. You can't extrapolate conclusions based on the market dynamics of one to the other.

I don’t agree with how you measure market share in order to try and argue that we do not see an abuse in negotiation power by Meta et al. Here is another oil&gas comparison: OPEC countries aren’t distorting the market in their favor, because oil is just a fraction of the total energy market (e.g., nuclear, wind, solar,…)

I still don't see how this is relevant.

Re: Everything advertised on social media is overpriced junk

#210

Post by omginternets »

mrweasel wrote: post #75
omginternets wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Impulse purchases? As someone who is as immune to advertising as one gets, I find your post intriguing, and I feel like asking what is probably a naive question: can’t you just not buy the stuff? Where does that break down?

Because kids. It's easy enough to say "don't buy it", but the family members buy the juke, the kid comes home bawling his eyes out because everyone else has product X, and it's only $Y, so you get it, because it's been a long week, and it's really only Wednesday and you can't really deal with something valued at only $19.95 right now and just maybe it will buy you 20 minutes of peace so you can cook dinner.

> It's easy enough to say "don't buy it"

Hmm, I'm not sure anyone said it was easy to say "no" to your kids. What they're instead saying is that it's often your duty as a parent.

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