4 ms·

> overwhelming majority of digital ad formats just don’t work Doesn't it? It may have miserable conversion rate, limited target audience but it apparently is c

> overwhelming majority of digital ad formats just don’t work Doesn't it? It may have miserable conversion rate, limited target audience but it apparently is commercially viable. People would hardly spend money on sending e-mail spam in 2020 if it didn't work.

rightbyte 6y ago
How do we not know that the spam is sent out by one sucker after the next that go until they realize it is not worth it?
chrisdinn 6y ago
I thought that at first. But like the original post points out, Uber was spending a lot of money, not just in absolute terms but in percentage terms, and it wasn't working for them. There's an allure to making something measurable and setting goals against it. Often, those goals take on a life of their own. That's what I am suggesting happened here, I guess.
kbar13 6y ago
if you read the twitter thread we see that uber was spending 10x more money than they should have on ads simply because they weren't auditing where their money was going towards. so there's evidence that people (incl uber, a market leader) do indeed spend money on ads even when it does nothing
- Hnrobert42 6y ago
  I got 0.66x, as in $100M out of $150M. I likely missed something. Where did you see 10x?
  - chrisdinn 6y ago
    $100M was labelled "fraud" in this example, but there was more waste uncovered in the remaining $50M that didn't get that label.
redisman 6y ago
Mobile games run on this. They have a target user acquisition cost and spend based on that. It seems to work for some very profitable companies. People shouldn’t try to over read into this. Businesses can’t run on irrationality for very long
- qwerty456127 6y ago
  Indeed. Mobile games. Perhaps the people who play mobile games probably would click an ad of another alike game or otherwise related content. They usually aren't mindful enough to prefer finding and choosing exactly what they need over just clicking an ad.

rightbyte 6y ago

How do we not know that the spam is sent out by one sucker after the next that go until they realize it is not worth it?

chrisdinn 6y ago

I thought that at first. But like the original post points out, Uber was spending a lot of money, not just in absolute terms but in percentage terms, and it wasn't working for them. There's an allure to making something measurable and setting goals against it. Often, those goals take on a life of their own. That's what I am suggesting happened here, I guess.

kbar13 6y ago

if you read the twitter thread we see that uber was spending 10x more money than they should have on ads simply because they weren't auditing where their money was going towards. so there's evidence that people (incl uber, a market leader) do indeed spend money on ads even when it does nothing

Hnrobert42 6y ago
I got 0.66x, as in $100M out of $150M. I likely missed something. Where did you see 10x?
- chrisdinn 6y ago
  $100M was labelled "fraud" in this example, but there was more waste uncovered in the remaining $50M that didn't get that label.

redisman 6y ago

Mobile games run on this. They have a target user acquisition cost and spend based on that. It seems to work for some very profitable companies. People shouldn’t try to over read into this. Businesses can’t run on irrationality for very long

qwerty456127 6y ago
Indeed. Mobile games. Perhaps the people who play mobile games probably would click an ad of another alike game or otherwise related content. They usually aren't mindful enough to prefer finding and choosing exactly what they need over just clicking an ad.