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There's a general fear that customers eventually will realize that the Google / FB ad dollars aren't actually creating new business. These gatekeepers - the Goo

There's a general fear that customers eventually will realize that the Google / FB ad dollars aren't actually creating new business. These gatekeepers - the Googles/Apples/FBs/etc - can predict where consumers are about to go[1], but the total numbers don't go up. It's sort of like the difference between coupons in the local paper, versus coupons that your ad man hands out next to the front door of your business. Everyone who gets a coupon was coming here anyway. The dark side of this is how your business can suddenly disappear from view if you stop buying into the Web-Ad-Hive-Mind. That's way worse than the coupon guy hanging outside the front door - that's more like someone in fake construction vests putting up cones around your parking lot. [1] Giving them something that looks like magic powers to individual businesses, particularly those that aren't particularly computer savvy. "Holy smokes!! 95% of the people who Google reaches went to my pizza place! They must be soooooo good at convincing people my pizza's the best!"

FormerBandmate 4y ago
> The dark side of this is how your business can suddenly disappear from view if you stop buying into the Web-Ad-Hive-Mind. That's way worse than the coupon guy hanging outside the front door - that's more like someone in fake construction vests putting up cones around your parking lot. Soooo… ads provide substantial value to businesses?
- EGreg 4y ago
  In the same way a protection racket provides substantial value to them as well. But only if the platforms mess with their rankings on organic listings and ratings depending on how they pay for ads. Yelp likes to do that, for instance. Alternatives to ads include: Referrals / word of mouth Organic rankings In a way, ads are similar to speculators pumping a token they think will eventually justify the hype by recouping the speculative spend. There are diminishing returns the bigger the ad spend gets. The only difference is that there is no secondary market to keep reselling ads and scalping them higher — or is there? But there is certainly the element of a large supply of greater fools to try out ad spend on various speculative ventures.

FormerBandmate 4y ago

> The dark side of this is how your business can suddenly disappear from view if you stop buying into the Web-Ad-Hive-Mind. That's way worse than the coupon guy hanging outside the front door - that's more like someone in fake construction vests putting up cones around your parking lot. Soooo… ads provide substantial value to businesses?

EGreg 4y ago
In the same way a protection racket provides substantial value to them as well. But only if the platforms mess with their rankings on organic listings and ratings depending on how they pay for ads. Yelp likes to do that, for instance. Alternatives to ads include: Referrals / word of mouth Organic rankings In a way, ads are similar to speculators pumping a token they think will eventually justify the hype by recouping the speculative spend. There are diminishing returns the bigger the ad spend gets. The only difference is that there is no secondary market to keep reselling ads and scalping them higher — or is there? But there is certainly the element of a large supply of greater fools to try out ad spend on various speculative ventures.