3 ms·

If I'm reading an article about the pandemic, I probably don't want to see ads selling me face masks. If I'm reading an article about the inauguration, I probab

If I'm reading an article about the pandemic, I probably don't want to see ads selling me face masks. If I'm reading an article about the inauguration, I probably don't want ads selling me inauguration t-shirts. I am however more likely to click on ads selling me home renovation stuff because they know I've recently bought something in Home Depot. Even though I'm not currently on a home renovation website.

dkdk8283 6y ago
I have never clicked on an ad and bought something.
- tux1968 6y ago
  Neither did anyone watching an ad on television, it's not just about click-through rate.
- AznHisoka 6y ago
  Ok you are extrapolating your experience to millions of others in the world. Nothing wrong with that but it isn’t going to give you universal insights since you’re a special case.
  - cratermoon 6y ago
    Almost nobody clicks on an ad and buys something based on that. Conversion is a pipe dream, and ad rates are never based on actual click-throughs.
thaeli 6y ago
The most effective ads on me, in terms of intentional click through rate (not going to count predatory clicks) are contextual ads on specialized sites. This doesn't work well for general stuff like news sites, but webcomics that do their own ads, or a super focused forum like candlepower or head-fi? Contextual ads are ideal there. Second most effective are platform-specicic hypertargeted ads, such as Facebook ads. Lot of misses there too, but their first party targeting is good to the point of actually giving me some interesting content. In practice the third party "contextual" ads mostly are misses for me. Wow, another ad for the home improvement thing I either researched and bought last month, or that I was looking up on a whim and don't have any intention of actually purchasing.
mcbits 6y ago
Maybe some articles just shouldn't have ads at all. That would be refreshing. Sites publishing ad-supported content obviously need to put the ads somewhere, but that doesn't mean every single article needs its own revenue stream to justify its existence.
- AznHisoka 6y ago
  I agree - that’s a whole separate argument though. If the argument is contextual vs personalized, personalized wins imo
ubercow13 6y ago
You've just given two bad examples, contrasted with one good example, to prove your point. Pick a good example of a contextual ad and a bad example of a personalised ad (there are many) and the proof is reversed.
- AznHisoka 6y ago
  Except that my example is more the more popular scenario. Pageviews of general news site surpass pageviews of niche websites about a specific topic. Just go look at the top visited websites.
  - ubercow13 6y ago
    Right but your example is still intentionally bad, no one is going to put an inaugration t-shirt ad as the contextual ad for a news article. An ad on a general news site can be related to the preferences of the readership of that paper, like how it always worked in print. Or it can even be targeted based on information about you that is gathered first-party, from the patterns in your use of the news website.
    - AznHisoka 6y ago
      I totally agree. But that probably won’t involve programmatic/traditional advertising. It will probably involve first party ads. Which I am definitely in favor of!

dkdk8283 6y ago

I have never clicked on an ad and bought something.

tux1968 6y ago
Neither did anyone watching an ad on television, it's not just about click-through rate.
AznHisoka 6y ago
Ok you are extrapolating your experience to millions of others in the world. Nothing wrong with that but it isn’t going to give you universal insights since you’re a special case.
- cratermoon 6y ago
  Almost nobody clicks on an ad and buys something based on that. Conversion is a pipe dream, and ad rates are never based on actual click-throughs.

thaeli 6y ago

The most effective ads on me, in terms of intentional click through rate (not going to count predatory clicks) are contextual ads on specialized sites. This doesn't work well for general stuff like news sites, but webcomics that do their own ads, or a super focused forum like candlepower or head-fi? Contextual ads are ideal there. Second most effective are platform-specicic hypertargeted ads, such as Facebook ads. Lot of misses there too, but their first party targeting is good to the point of actually giving me some interesting content. In practice the third party "contextual" ads mostly are misses for me. Wow, another ad for the home improvement thing I either researched and bought last month, or that I was looking up on a whim and don't have any intention of actually purchasing.

mcbits 6y ago

Maybe some articles just shouldn't have ads at all. That would be refreshing. Sites publishing ad-supported content obviously need to put the ads somewhere, but that doesn't mean every single article needs its own revenue stream to justify its existence.

AznHisoka 6y ago
I agree - that’s a whole separate argument though. If the argument is contextual vs personalized, personalized wins imo

ubercow13 6y ago

You've just given two bad examples, contrasted with one good example, to prove your point. Pick a good example of a contextual ad and a bad example of a personalised ad (there are many) and the proof is reversed.

AznHisoka 6y ago
Except that my example is more the more popular scenario. Pageviews of general news site surpass pageviews of niche websites about a specific topic. Just go look at the top visited websites.
- ubercow13 6y ago
  Right but your example is still intentionally bad, no one is going to put an inaugration t-shirt ad as the contextual ad for a news article. An ad on a general news site can be related to the preferences of the readership of that paper, like how it always worked in print. Or it can even be targeted based on information about you that is gathered first-party, from the patterns in your use of the news website.
  - AznHisoka 6y ago
    I totally agree. But that probably won’t involve programmatic/traditional advertising. It will probably involve first party ads. Which I am definitely in favor of!