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I get what you are saying, however I do not believe for one second that there is a measurable change in sales (for the company that places an ad) for an ad like

I get what you are saying, however I do not believe for one second that there is a measurable change in sales (for the company that places an ad) for an ad like the one I mentioned above vs the mega-targetted, data-mined tracked-to-hell-and-back ads that companies like FB and Google tell you about. Sure, a scattergun approach would be pointless but someone in Minnesota searching for carburetors has provided enough data in that one search that I don't believe targetted, mined, tracked users will be more lucrative. I've asked on here before if anyone had a link to research that wasn't commissioned by an ad company about targetted and mined data and no one has provided one. I'd love to be proven wrong but I don't believe targetting, mining, whatever you want to call it, moves the needle enough except for the ones at the top of the tree selling the belief (Google, FB etc.)

londons_explore 6y ago
You'd be wrong - lots of data and very precise targeting can multiply the effectiveness of some kinds of ad campaign by 10x. That's the kind of change that turns an unviable business into a viable one. I suspect that if ML based targeting gets as good as it theoretically could (ie. The ads predict what I need before I even think I need it), there would be another 10x gain.
- _Understated_ 6y ago
  > That's the kind of change that turns an unviable business into a viable one. What, like going from 1 in every billion people clicking on your ad to 1 in every 100 million? I'm sure that in some niches there is going to be a particular data set that yields mega results for someone. But I'm talking as a general concept, that the whole advertising industry is built on total lies all the way down and that all the data mining hardly moves the needle compared to context-related ads like my example. I suspect that no one wants to know if it actually works or not. It'd be like pulling on a thread that everyone can see, plain as day, but no one wants to touch it as there are hundreds of billions of dollars on the line if they do. That, plus people are employed and have livelihoods built around ads so they won't jeapordise that. I don't buy it. I still think it's all bullshit. But let's say it's true. There still remains the fact that many don't want their data in anyone's database in the first place. It's an industry built on gathering data without consent - and before you say there are opt-outs and all that, the industry built itself up long before any rules came into effect.

londons_explore 6y ago

You'd be wrong - lots of data and very precise targeting can multiply the effectiveness of some kinds of ad campaign by 10x. That's the kind of change that turns an unviable business into a viable one. I suspect that if ML based targeting gets as good as it theoretically could (ie. The ads predict what I need before I even think I need it), there would be another 10x gain.

_Understated_ 6y ago
> That's the kind of change that turns an unviable business into a viable one. What, like going from 1 in every billion people clicking on your ad to 1 in every 100 million? I'm sure that in some niches there is going to be a particular data set that yields mega results for someone. But I'm talking as a general concept, that the whole advertising industry is built on total lies all the way down and that all the data mining hardly moves the needle compared to context-related ads like my example. I suspect that no one wants to know if it actually works or not. It'd be like pulling on a thread that everyone can see, plain as day, but no one wants to touch it as there are hundreds of billions of dollars on the line if they do. That, plus people are employed and have livelihoods built around ads so they won't jeapordise that. I don't buy it. I still think it's all bullshit. But let's say it's true. There still remains the fact that many don't want their data in anyone's database in the first place. It's an industry built on gathering data without consent - and before you say there are opt-outs and all that, the industry built itself up long before any rules came into effect.