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Pay Google to stop seeing ads

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61–70 of 82 posts

Re: Pay Google to stop seeing ads

#61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people who sell stuff think they'll get a higher conversion rate the more targeted they get.... and that's hard to argue with. Is it really? For me, targeted ads come up for either a) products I have already purchased or b) products I've looked at and then decided not to buy. I got my wife an espresso grinder for Christmas, ordered on Dec. 10, but AdSense is still showing me ads for grinders. There is exactly 0.00%…

Campaign A: Show 10,000 random people ads for espresso grinders. Campaign B: Show 10,000 people who recently looked at espresso grinders some ads for them. 95% of the first group didn't know espresso grinders were a thing people bought. The remainder probably aren't actively shopping for one. In the second group, some portion of the audience has already bought an espresso grinder, or decided they don't want one right…

What about campaign c: show 9,900 people who recently looked at espresso grinders an ad for one, and 100 people who actually bought one an ad for something related that they might need. If you're harvesting that kind of data anyway, at least use it!

As a matter of interest, is someone who has previously purchased an espresso grinder more or less likely to buy one than someone who hasn't?

Re: Pay Google to stop seeing ads

#62
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is true. But ads are more targeted not to make it less annoying for you, but because people who sell stuff think they'll get a higher conversion rate the more targeted they get.... and that's hard to argue with. But I do think legislation to make you be tracked less would be awesome, but it'd be fighting money.

> people who sell stuff think they'll get a higher conversion rate the more targeted they get.... and that's hard to argue with. Is it really? For me, targeted ads come up for either a) products I have already purchased or b) products I've looked at and then decided not to buy. I got my wife an espresso grinder for Christmas, ordered on Dec. 10, but AdSense is still showing me ads for grinders. There is exactly 0.00%…

I agree with you, but for a different reason.

I work for a company uses these targeted ADs. 100% of the ADs I see are for what my company sells. Well 98%, sometimes I see ADs for services we are already using.

It would be cool if when I am reading an article about how do X, there was ADs for goods and services that help me do it. That would at least make me think about clicking. Instead, I only see my companies product, which is worse the useless.

My company is paying to advertise to itself. And if it is happening to us, it must be happening to others.

Re: Pay Google to stop seeing ads

#63
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> people who sell stuff think they'll get a higher conversion rate the more targeted they get.... and that's hard to argue with. Is it really? For me, targeted ads come up for either a) products I have already purchased or b) products I've looked at and then decided not to buy. I got my wife an espresso grinder for Christmas, ordered on Dec. 10, but AdSense is still showing me ads for grinders. There is exactly 0.00%…

People who purchase something online are magnitudes more likely to purchase it again than someone who hasn't made the purchase.

Surely it depends on the product - e.g. USB stick versus engagement ring.

Re: Pay Google to stop seeing ads

#64

Why do I get the impression that I'm paying protection money to the mob? These ads wouldn't exist in the first place if it wasn't for Google.

Correspondingly, if there were no ads there would be many fewer small websites.

Absolutely true. Fewer, but better quality.

With money as a motivator, we have ended up with a lot of keyword-spammy poor quality content.

Re: Pay Google to stop seeing ads

#65
post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you want people to click to donate every time they show up on a page? People will never click that button. This system is great because it's a) seamless (you just get one bill a month), b) based on usage (you visited these pages) and c) is a market (the price you pay is based on competitive rates that advertisers would otherwise be willing to pay).

You can cover all of the points you made by loading a Bitcoin wallet and having the plugin deduct fractions of a BTC when you visit these web pages, and when the wallet is empty ads are loaded instead. The main loser in this situation is Google, since the site creators get all of the money. Users may have privacy concerns since BTC transactions are on a public record, but you can keep creating new Bitcoin wallets aut…

How much do you pay per visit?

Re: Pay Google to stop seeing ads

#66
post #52

Earlier quoted context omitted.

People who purchase something online are magnitudes more likely to purchase it again than someone who hasn't made the purchase.

Surely it depends on the product - e.g. USB stick versus engagement ring.

I doubt there is a huge market for online engagement rings, coffins, or other once/twice a lifetime purchases.

For gifting espresso grinders, it's not unlikely that purchasers will buy it as a gift again for their parents, friends, etc.

Re: Pay Google to stop seeing ads

#67
post #9

would seriously consider it if there were a "100% fewer ads" option.

I think that's to cover the cases where a site may be using other ad providers in addition to AdSense.

But in that case, the percentage of lesser adds would be highly unreliable.

Re: Pay Google to stop seeing ads

#68
post #5

They should have negotiated a contract with all the ad networks that have a name, and licensed an adblocker for the rest. They should aggressively support the adblock detection => annoying reminder that has been slowly gaining traction lately. "Fewer ads on million of sites" (there is ~ 1 billion sites worldwide[1]) is not a selling point. "No more ads, ever" is. [1] http://www.internetlivestats.com/total-number-of-w…

That won't happen (and is one of the issues with Contributor) because of antitrust issues. Google already has too much power in the ad ecosystem.

For example, this could work both practically and legally:

Google could lead the industry to implement a protocol, whereby third-party adblockers could implement a subscription service by which the user bids on impressions the same way as advertisers do now. If the user wins, no ads are displayed and a micropayment is deducted from their balance.

The necessity to mediate payments would provide an opportunity for adblockers to generate per-user or per-transaction revenue, which would incentivize them to support the system.

The added revenue would enable adblockers to devote sufficient time to blacklist maintenance for revenue-generating customers, further strengthening the pressure on sites that don't participate in the system, and providing added value to participating users.

I suspect this system may not work, because the auction mechanism would be vulnerable to manipulation by the advertisers, or because the price to the user would not be commesurate with the perceived benefit. But it is plausible, and would be legal.

Re: Pay Google to stop seeing ads

#69

Why do I get the impression that I'm paying protection money to the mob? These ads wouldn't exist in the first place if it wasn't for Google.

Um, the internet was full of ads before Google.

The main way Google changed things was AdSense, which for a while at least replaced horrible "punch the monkey" type ads with text ads.

Unfortunately text ads don't seem to be so popular these days.

Re: Pay Google to stop seeing ads

#70
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Correspondingly, if there were no ads there would be many fewer small websites.

Absolutely true. Fewer, but better quality. With money as a motivator, we have ended up with a lot of keyword-spammy poor quality content.

Why better quality?

A whole lot of the sites I spend most time with are ad supported. It's not clear to me why less money == more quality, in your eyes.

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