4 ms·

I've come to the tentative conclusion that advertising is, in most cases, kind of like money spent on good luck charms. The company wants to spend money on con

I've come to the tentative conclusion that advertising is, in most cases, kind of like money spent on good luck charms. The company wants to spend money on convincing people to buy their product (or service or etc.). Telling them, "there is no good way to do that, you'll have to just make a better product", is never going to be believed. They want to think that they can just spend money, and get money back. Improving your product also requires money, probably, but in addition it would require good planning, a realistic vision, organizational competence, and a lot of other things that are harder to deliver than just buying ads. Executive buy ads because it's easy to do, compared to making a better product (or service or etc.). So your ad company doesn't have to deliver better sales, it just has to be at least as good as other people's ad services. Because most executives are not going to promote the guy who says, "there is no easy way to spend money to get higher sales, you're going to have to do it the hard way".

ashtonkem 7y ago
As best I can tell some advertising is probably necessary; if customers don’t know about your product it genuinely doesn’t matter how good it is. But chances are most of the programmatic ads are a waste.
- WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
  That's the problem... I'm currently doing a Brother hackathon and have started noticing brother ads as I browse into and out of their developer documentation. I wonder if there is some theory on clickthrough rate on ads you have seen versus never seen versus companies you know or don't know.
  - toast0 7y ago
    Retargetting is the name for what you're seeing. The idea is that you were looking at their products, but didn't buy, and a reminder might help close the sale. The ROI on these seems to be pretty high, so the bid prices are higher than a lot of other ads you might see. Especially for larger dollar items (if you look at cars, you're going to see way more car ads than normal for about 3-6 months, regardless of if you bought a car or just stopped looking ... the ad networks don't know if you converted).
    - ashtonkem 7y ago
      Cars are slightly different. The purpose of car advertising is to build a brand loyalty that affects your next purchasing decision. This is super important since cars are something most people will buy repeatedly over their lifetime. Compare that to where I bought my wife’s engagement ring, who still advertises to me 6 years later. Statistically the chance of me becoming a repeat wedding jewelry buyer is low based on my demographics, while the bids on wedding jewelry ads are very high. I suspect they’re throwing a lot of their money away on those ads.
- visarga 7y ago
  > if customers don’t know about your product it genuinely doesn’t matter how good it is If customers don't know about a product they need, they can intentionally find out about it in many ways. Using search engines, magazines, reviews, ratings, or directly asking in an online community. Or they can stumble upon it by chance, in real life, in a video or in a news feed. I believe it is much more respectful of human dignity to let people ask about what they need instead of manipulating them with ads.
- asdff 7y ago
  Especially all the ads for a product that I've just bought. Amazon is the worst for this with their 'based on your interests.' I buy one 1 off bike tool and will never buy another bike tool in my life, yet they must think I'm a bike shop.
- gkya 7y ago
  My anecdotal 2 cents: I haven't learned about a single product by targeted advertising in a long long time, if ever. Vast majority, if not all, of targeted ads I've seen are about things I've seen already: I check some product out, maybe even buy it, and the thing follows me the entire internet for days.
  - rossdavidh 7y ago
    This happened to me after I replaced my home's air conditioner. Which means, really, I am the LEAST likely person to sell an air conditioner to. Same thing after I bought a car. Nowadays I am always ad-blocking, but from what my wife tells me it's not gotten any better.

ashtonkem 7y ago

As best I can tell some advertising is probably necessary; if customers don’t know about your product it genuinely doesn’t matter how good it is. But chances are most of the programmatic ads are a waste.

WrtCdEvrydy 7y ago
That's the problem... I'm currently doing a Brother hackathon and have started noticing brother ads as I browse into and out of their developer documentation. I wonder if there is some theory on clickthrough rate on ads you have seen versus never seen versus companies you know or don't know.
- toast0 7y ago
  Retargetting is the name for what you're seeing. The idea is that you were looking at their products, but didn't buy, and a reminder might help close the sale. The ROI on these seems to be pretty high, so the bid prices are higher than a lot of other ads you might see. Especially for larger dollar items (if you look at cars, you're going to see way more car ads than normal for about 3-6 months, regardless of if you bought a car or just stopped looking ... the ad networks don't know if you converted).
  - ashtonkem 7y ago
    Cars are slightly different. The purpose of car advertising is to build a brand loyalty that affects your next purchasing decision. This is super important since cars are something most people will buy repeatedly over their lifetime. Compare that to where I bought my wife’s engagement ring, who still advertises to me 6 years later. Statistically the chance of me becoming a repeat wedding jewelry buyer is low based on my demographics, while the bids on wedding jewelry ads are very high. I suspect they’re throwing a lot of their money away on those ads.
visarga 7y ago
> if customers don’t know about your product it genuinely doesn’t matter how good it is If customers don't know about a product they need, they can intentionally find out about it in many ways. Using search engines, magazines, reviews, ratings, or directly asking in an online community. Or they can stumble upon it by chance, in real life, in a video or in a news feed. I believe it is much more respectful of human dignity to let people ask about what they need instead of manipulating them with ads.
asdff 7y ago
Especially all the ads for a product that I've just bought. Amazon is the worst for this with their 'based on your interests.' I buy one 1 off bike tool and will never buy another bike tool in my life, yet they must think I'm a bike shop.
gkya 7y ago
My anecdotal 2 cents: I haven't learned about a single product by targeted advertising in a long long time, if ever. Vast majority, if not all, of targeted ads I've seen are about things I've seen already: I check some product out, maybe even buy it, and the thing follows me the entire internet for days.
- rossdavidh 7y ago
  This happened to me after I replaced my home's air conditioner. Which means, really, I am the LEAST likely person to sell an air conditioner to. Same thing after I bought a car. Nowadays I am always ad-blocking, but from what my wife tells me it's not gotten any better.