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However, if Google gets a query "Where to buy a Rolex" or "best deals on Rolex watches", well you know that person is perhaps already considering buying a watch

However, if Google gets a query "Where to buy a Rolex" or "best deals on Rolex watches", well you know that person is perhaps already considering buying a watch, so you want first crack at the deal. I've found that my "buying questions" are never properly answered by those ads. The more commercial intent I display, the scummier the ads get. I blame misaligned interests: I want to know if the product is good and to find good deals, they want me to give them money, now! And since advertising is a numbers game, they don't pull their punches when manipulating me. No, thank you. Talk to my adblocker.

mr_toad 6y ago
> I've found that my "buying questions" are never properly answered by those ads. The more commercial intent I display, the scummier the ads get. It’s a lot like walking into a car dealership. They aren’t aiming to match you with the best car for you, they’re aiming to sell you the car that makes them the most money.
- c_s_guy 6y ago
  I've never actually bought straight from a dealership so excuse my naivety here, but wouldn't they be better off trying to sell me the car that is best for me? Otherwise if it doesn't meet my needs, I won't be buying anything.
  - neolog 6y ago
    You probably can't tell which car is best for you, and salespeople aren't gonna help.
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - Dylan16807 6y ago
    They just have to convince you it's good enough. Even if they do pick a car largely based on your needs, they're never going to say it's anything but a perfect or near-perfect fit.
  - zaphirplane 6y ago
    Car dealers may not be a frequent repeat customer like stores Word of mouth is diluted by type model needs, it’s not my friend was recommended dealer bar for their experience buying a Honda foo I’ll go and buy one
    - deleted 6y ago
      [deleted]
  - vidarh 6y ago
    What is 'best' is highly subjective and emotive. At almost any price point there is going to be some model or feature that is a bit more expensive that you may not strictly need but that may be better in one way or other.
  - llarsson 6y ago
    They will sell you the car currently in their lot that most closely matches what you need. Not what you actually need. Just the closest they have.
    - pbhjpbhj 6y ago
      Doubt. Yes, the one in their lot; no, on best match. They'll try and sell to you according to their need - highest commission, dump a lemon, etc. If you do choose a vehicle they'll try to give you a terrible finance deal, wiggle out of a warranty they were offering, and such.
  - cycomanic 6y ago
    I recommend talking to some people who know about car dealer sales strategies. For many people buying a car is highly emotional and car dealers are trying to manipulate those. Some examples, if you come in with a budget of say $5000 they will always try to sell you something which is above your budget ("this is what you really want/need"), so never give them your true budget. If it comes to closing a sales deal they will often work on you with 2 people, which is much harder to resist psychologically. So best is to go buy a car with at least 2 people as well (and make a strategy before so they don't play you against each other). They also use strategies, like installing a mirror at the place where you drop the car back after a test drive so you see yourself in the car, which causes an emotional response.
    - laurent92 6y ago
      ...and this is part of the success of Tesla. Car dealers are literally driving traffic away from them. They are about as popular as taxi drivers before Uber. Psychological tricks are a predatory social behavior, not only to the buyer, but also because people (especially introverts) detect them quickly and grow tired very fast. That leads people online (for Tesla) or online shopping (who enjoys being harassed by vendors in every clothes shop?), or online because at least the price negotiation doesn’t depend on your face or your mastery of social games. When your psychological tricks lead to entire industries sidestepping you and letting you die with popular support, you know something is wrong.
      - irrational 6y ago
        And yet Saturn failed even though that was how their cars were sold also.
    - alistairSH 6y ago
      All true. And thankfully avoidable in 2021. I just bought a new car, from a large chain dealer, 95% by SMS.
      - NullPrefix 6y ago
        No thanks, delivery would eat all my data allowance.
  - sunsipples 6y ago
    OTT but in line with your question In my part of Australia we have an established dealership who has been here since the 70's and I bought my 1st car from him in the mid 90's. each couple of years I would go back and ask what he could do for me as a trade and on what. every time, walking out with a good deal (he actually moved figures around to get the best price) larger part of my wifes family started going there and same outcome, come home with a car they like, met their expectations and got good trade-ins for their cars. recently I took mine and my wifes cars in to change over, we picked our cars, got fair to good trade ins on them, paid and then waited on them to be detailed so we could drive home. I asked the dealer principle which car would he have sold me if he wanted to make money. he said, plainly "they all make money, in differing amounts, no point trying for a high margin car that won't suit either of your needs" I asked what he could of pointed us at if he wanted more money out of us. his reply "I'd push you to a cheaper 2nd hand car or one of the LDV/MG/Import cars where I would make 3x as much as what I am getting from this sale" guy is in his 80's and doesn't mince words but is as honest as they come
  - fomine3 6y ago
    It seems that it's common understanding in US that car dealer is BS. Is it cultural? because I don't see such common understanding outside US.
- amelius 6y ago
  Modern life is like being in a car dealership 24/7.
  - datenhorst 6y ago
    That is a sadly apt metaphor
LeifCarrotson 6y ago
Right? If anything that tells me what vendors spend more on ads than on their product; every dollar they spent on this annoyingly pervasive ad campaign was a dollar they took from buyers but didn't put into the products they're selling.
cortesoft 6y ago
Yeah, it is annoying when I am searching for a specific product and the top ad results are places that don’t actually sell it. It is one thing to advertise to me the thing I want, but don’t distract me from what I am trying to do.
colechristensen 6y ago
My experiences exactly, my ad experiences fit in to two categories “things i just purchased” and “terrifically bad suggestions”. A third category might be “creepy connections” where a random search leads to ads on vastly different platforms usually quite inappropriately.
- bigiain 6y ago
  Amazon are terrifically bad at the “things I have already purchased” advertising. They _know_ with 100% certainty that I bought a webcam 6 months back - because I bought it on Amazon. Yet they’re still sending me email and putting ads on webpages for webcams, including the exact model I bought from them... (I totally expect some shitty AdTech startup to start buying remarketing ads for NFTs any minute now. )
  - jefftk 6y ago
    Have you considered that Amazon is very good at what they do, and that perhaps people who buy a webcam are much more likely than then general public to buy another one?
    - sillydrivings 6y ago
      Considering that the same thing happened to me when I last bought a movie on DVD from them and then got ads for that very same movie for weeks, no.
    - someguyorother 6y ago
      You'd be surprised how often the people who are supposed to be good at ads aren't. Organizational inefficiency explains a lot of it: https://thecorrespondent.com/100/the-new-dot-com-bubble-is-here-its-called-online-advertising/13228924500-22d5fd24 https://thecorrespondent.com/100/the-new-dot-com-bubble-is-h...
      - jefftk 6y ago
        That may happen in many companies, but I'd be very surprised if it happens with remarketing ads and Amazon? Performance-based advertising with solid experiments that appropriately consider both counterfactuals and long-term user value is one of their core strengths.
rtpg 6y ago
I get where you're coming from. As someone who has had ads be "basically" what I want, I've never really believed that someone wanting to take my money for a thing I might want is _that_ misaligned in terms of interest (kind of like recruiters or real estate agents wanting you to take basically anything: they might not have your best interests at heart but they do want to close a deal). This is, of course, a naive view of the world A sort of value-neutral narrative I've come up with recently: the ad -> sale pipeline is basically super flexible (you put in X money to get Y clicks for Z sales, but don't really need much staff on it). So if you're super good at this kind of optimization you can confidently put in the maximum about of X money to get even just some profit. And of course outbid people who are less confident. So in the auction-based ad market, the people who will "win" the ad space will be people _who are good at auction-based ads_! Everyone who really cares about sales funnels etc will be able to get better results! Of course there's like.... misleading copy etc, but I'm more and more convinced that the reason for the awfulness is that the people who get the slot are getting it for a mostly unrelated skill.
axaxs 6y ago
See, I have the opposite problem in that I'm too impulsive. I search for a mattress for 20 mins, then buy one. The problem is that I then get mattress ads everywhere I click for the next 3 months. It's like I need a button to mark my query as solved.

mr_toad 6y ago

> I've found that my "buying questions" are never properly answered by those ads. The more commercial intent I display, the scummier the ads get. It’s a lot like walking into a car dealership. They aren’t aiming to match you with the best car for you, they’re aiming to sell you the car that makes them the most money.

c_s_guy 6y ago
I've never actually bought straight from a dealership so excuse my naivety here, but wouldn't they be better off trying to sell me the car that is best for me? Otherwise if it doesn't meet my needs, I won't be buying anything.
- neolog 6y ago
  You probably can't tell which car is best for you, and salespeople aren't gonna help.
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- Dylan16807 6y ago
  They just have to convince you it's good enough. Even if they do pick a car largely based on your needs, they're never going to say it's anything but a perfect or near-perfect fit.
- zaphirplane 6y ago
  Car dealers may not be a frequent repeat customer like stores Word of mouth is diluted by type model needs, it’s not my friend was recommended dealer bar for their experience buying a Honda foo I’ll go and buy one
  - deleted 6y ago
    [deleted]
- vidarh 6y ago
  What is 'best' is highly subjective and emotive. At almost any price point there is going to be some model or feature that is a bit more expensive that you may not strictly need but that may be better in one way or other.
- llarsson 6y ago
  They will sell you the car currently in their lot that most closely matches what you need. Not what you actually need. Just the closest they have.
  - pbhjpbhj 6y ago
    Doubt. Yes, the one in their lot; no, on best match. They'll try and sell to you according to their need - highest commission, dump a lemon, etc. If you do choose a vehicle they'll try to give you a terrible finance deal, wiggle out of a warranty they were offering, and such.
- cycomanic 6y ago
  I recommend talking to some people who know about car dealer sales strategies. For many people buying a car is highly emotional and car dealers are trying to manipulate those. Some examples, if you come in with a budget of say $5000 they will always try to sell you something which is above your budget ("this is what you really want/need"), so never give them your true budget. If it comes to closing a sales deal they will often work on you with 2 people, which is much harder to resist psychologically. So best is to go buy a car with at least 2 people as well (and make a strategy before so they don't play you against each other). They also use strategies, like installing a mirror at the place where you drop the car back after a test drive so you see yourself in the car, which causes an emotional response.
  - laurent92 6y ago
    ...and this is part of the success of Tesla. Car dealers are literally driving traffic away from them. They are about as popular as taxi drivers before Uber. Psychological tricks are a predatory social behavior, not only to the buyer, but also because people (especially introverts) detect them quickly and grow tired very fast. That leads people online (for Tesla) or online shopping (who enjoys being harassed by vendors in every clothes shop?), or online because at least the price negotiation doesn’t depend on your face or your mastery of social games. When your psychological tricks lead to entire industries sidestepping you and letting you die with popular support, you know something is wrong.
    - irrational 6y ago
      And yet Saturn failed even though that was how their cars were sold also.
  - alistairSH 6y ago
    All true. And thankfully avoidable in 2021. I just bought a new car, from a large chain dealer, 95% by SMS.
    - NullPrefix 6y ago
      No thanks, delivery would eat all my data allowance.
- sunsipples 6y ago
  OTT but in line with your question In my part of Australia we have an established dealership who has been here since the 70's and I bought my 1st car from him in the mid 90's. each couple of years I would go back and ask what he could do for me as a trade and on what. every time, walking out with a good deal (he actually moved figures around to get the best price) larger part of my wifes family started going there and same outcome, come home with a car they like, met their expectations and got good trade-ins for their cars. recently I took mine and my wifes cars in to change over, we picked our cars, got fair to good trade ins on them, paid and then waited on them to be detailed so we could drive home. I asked the dealer principle which car would he have sold me if he wanted to make money. he said, plainly "they all make money, in differing amounts, no point trying for a high margin car that won't suit either of your needs" I asked what he could of pointed us at if he wanted more money out of us. his reply "I'd push you to a cheaper 2nd hand car or one of the LDV/MG/Import cars where I would make 3x as much as what I am getting from this sale" guy is in his 80's and doesn't mince words but is as honest as they come
- fomine3 6y ago
  It seems that it's common understanding in US that car dealer is BS. Is it cultural? because I don't see such common understanding outside US.
amelius 6y ago
Modern life is like being in a car dealership 24/7.
- datenhorst 6y ago
  That is a sadly apt metaphor

LeifCarrotson 6y ago

Right? If anything that tells me what vendors spend more on ads than on their product; every dollar they spent on this annoyingly pervasive ad campaign was a dollar they took from buyers but didn't put into the products they're selling.

cortesoft 6y ago

Yeah, it is annoying when I am searching for a specific product and the top ad results are places that don’t actually sell it. It is one thing to advertise to me the thing I want, but don’t distract me from what I am trying to do.

colechristensen 6y ago

My experiences exactly, my ad experiences fit in to two categories “things i just purchased” and “terrifically bad suggestions”. A third category might be “creepy connections” where a random search leads to ads on vastly different platforms usually quite inappropriately.

bigiain 6y ago
Amazon are terrifically bad at the “things I have already purchased” advertising. They _know_ with 100% certainty that I bought a webcam 6 months back - because I bought it on Amazon. Yet they’re still sending me email and putting ads on webpages for webcams, including the exact model I bought from them... (I totally expect some shitty AdTech startup to start buying remarketing ads for NFTs any minute now. )
- jefftk 6y ago
  Have you considered that Amazon is very good at what they do, and that perhaps people who buy a webcam are much more likely than then general public to buy another one?
  - sillydrivings 6y ago
    Considering that the same thing happened to me when I last bought a movie on DVD from them and then got ads for that very same movie for weeks, no.
  - someguyorother 6y ago
    You'd be surprised how often the people who are supposed to be good at ads aren't. Organizational inefficiency explains a lot of it: https://thecorrespondent.com/100/the-new-dot-com-bubble-is-here-its-called-online-advertising/13228924500-22d5fd24 https://thecorrespondent.com/100/the-new-dot-com-bubble-is-h...
    - jefftk 6y ago
      That may happen in many companies, but I'd be very surprised if it happens with remarketing ads and Amazon? Performance-based advertising with solid experiments that appropriately consider both counterfactuals and long-term user value is one of their core strengths.

rtpg 6y ago

I get where you're coming from. As someone who has had ads be "basically" what I want, I've never really believed that someone wanting to take my money for a thing I might want is _that_ misaligned in terms of interest (kind of like recruiters or real estate agents wanting you to take basically anything: they might not have your best interests at heart but they do want to close a deal). This is, of course, a naive view of the world A sort of value-neutral narrative I've come up with recently: the ad -> sale pipeline is basically super flexible (you put in X money to get Y clicks for Z sales, but don't really need much staff on it). So if you're super good at this kind of optimization you can confidently put in the maximum about of X money to get even just some profit. And of course outbid people who are less confident. So in the auction-based ad market, the people who will "win" the ad space will be people _who are good at auction-based ads_! Everyone who really cares about sales funnels etc will be able to get better results! Of course there's like.... misleading copy etc, but I'm more and more convinced that the reason for the awfulness is that the people who get the slot are getting it for a mostly unrelated skill.

axaxs 6y ago

See, I have the opposite problem in that I'm too impulsive. I search for a mattress for 20 mins, then buy one. The problem is that I then get mattress ads everywhere I click for the next 3 months. It's like I need a button to mark my query as solved.