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Who is clicking on these ads, anyway? I've never understood how this adds up to profit (for the advertisers).

refulgentis 9y ago
With ~infinite inventory, there's ~infinite demand for ads, even crap ones that barely monetize.
lucasmullens 9y ago
A small percentage of users click ads that I assume make up for the users who don't. And for the record, I click ads sometimes. Mainly on Facebook, because they're impressively relevant. I've discovered quite a few apps and products that I like through ads.
vkou 9y ago
Who responds to Advance-fee scam emails? Most people don't. Enough do that make the practice profitable enough to fill our mailboxes with spam. The same applies to scummy web ads.
mpeg 9y ago
It should be telling that generally most advertising is paid per impression, not per click (even when the advertiser pays per click, their cost per click is generally calculated from CTR and thus really a cost per impression) You might not click on the ads, but (if you're not blocking them) you're probably seeing them, and remembering some of them, and they influence you.
GoToRO 9y ago
Most people don't even recognize the ads. They don't understand what "sponsored" means for example (and it's implications; what?! people are paying money?). This is not because they are sd. They work in totally different domains and just like we don't know the latest things in those domains, they don't know the latest in ours.
akerro 9y ago
I do. Oh, not really me, but https://adnauseam.io/ https://adnauseam.io/ does it for me.
erikb 9y ago
Often things that don't make sense, don't make sense for a reason. There are some ads that influence people indirectly (e.g. the trailer of one movie coming before a review of a movie on youtube). But click-through ads at this point may be a total fake business for washing drug money or something. Not even my parents or grand parents click ads. I wouldn't believe anybody who claims there might be an unknown group of people who really do click ads.

With ~infinite inventory, there's ~infinite demand for ads, even crap ones that barely monetize.

A small percentage of users click ads that I assume make up for the users who don't. And for the record, I click ads sometimes. Mainly on Facebook, because they're impressively relevant. I've discovered quite a few apps and products that I like through ads.

vkou 9y ago

Who responds to Advance-fee scam emails? Most people don't. Enough do that make the practice profitable enough to fill our mailboxes with spam. The same applies to scummy web ads.

mpeg 9y ago

It should be telling that generally most advertising is paid per impression, not per click (even when the advertiser pays per click, their cost per click is generally calculated from CTR and thus really a cost per impression) You might not click on the ads, but (if you're not blocking them) you're probably seeing them, and remembering some of them, and they influence you.

GoToRO 9y ago

Most people don't even recognize the ads. They don't understand what "sponsored" means for example (and it's implications; what?! people are paying money?). This is not because they are sd. They work in totally different domains and just like we don't know the latest things in those domains, they don't know the latest in ours.

akerro 9y ago

I do. Oh, not really me, but https://adnauseam.io/ https://adnauseam.io/ does it for me.

erikb 9y ago

Often things that don't make sense, don't make sense for a reason. There are some ads that influence people indirectly (e.g. the trailer of one movie coming before a review of a movie on youtube). But click-through ads at this point may be a total fake business for washing drug money or something. Not even my parents or grand parents click ads. I wouldn't believe anybody who claims there might be an unknown group of people who really do click ads.