4 ms·

I really dont understand how the Ad Industry still survives. Attention is finite. That should put an automatic upper bound on how many Ads get sold. Info/Cont

by gsatic 4y ago

I really dont understand how the Ad Industry still survives. Attention is finite. That should put an automatic upper bound on how many Ads get sold. Info/Content has exploded. I saw a stat saying only 0.5% of content produced is consumed. And that was from 2015. The Ad Industry (big techs "free" email,chat,video,movies,games etc) has funded this content explosion to draw in eyeballs. Network/Smartphone growth over the last 2-3 decade has added huge number eyeballs to the available Attention pool. But this growth has been flattening for a while in the developed world. The developing world has eyeballs available but they dont have the cash (sort of like the subprime market). So whats the use of producing more content/offering free services? Is it just a big ponzi scheme? Shouldn't we be able to calculate precisely when it makes no sense to pump out more ads. Isn't it sort of like Shannon's channel capacity? If everyone is broadcasting and cost to broadcast has fallen to 0, and there is no cost to business to wasting ppl's time, then how do get anyone to hear anything? 1. Raise the volume 2. Repeat the message endlessly But all this just adds to noise so how are Ads even working. Nothing makes sense man.

toast0 4y ago
> I really dont understand how the Ad Industry still survives. > Shouldn't we be able to calculate precisely when it makes no sense to pump out more ads. Isn't it sort of like Shannon's channel capacity? Even if the channel is saturated, that doesn't signal the end of the industry. Pepsi knows advertising in the super bowl is expensive and crowded, but they can't take their superbowl ad budget and spend it on feel good projects for local communities, because the sales slump too much. Other beverage sellers must have also taken note from Pepsi's experiment. If the channel capacity is reached, that's not bad for the industry. Slot pricing goes up if there's not enough supply. And if you're paying more to slot your ad, it should be a better ad, so you've got to pay more to make it. There's a saying that 50% of your ads are a waste of money, but which 50%?
- gsatic 4y ago
  What I guess I am wondering about is what sets the upper bounds/limits to advertising growth and ad funded free content/free service growth? Since attention is finite, and the competition for that finite resource seems to be at all time highs.
- pipo234 4y ago
  I get that there will always be ads as there will always be projects, products, initiatives, stuff that need a little help getting attention. I'm not so sure about the ad industry, which I believe to be fundamentally way overpriced. Mostly, empires built on ads (news outlets, google, facebook) were built on the assumption that ads work and cost certain amount. So ad budgets have been looking for the best way to be spent. If we were to reconsider the whole rationale, the billions might more likely be millions. Google and facebook will only be able to stay in the black if they abandon intrinsically expensive channels and technologies, like video, complicated slot trading etc.
- InCityDreams 4y ago
  >which 50% The 50% that doesn't give me what the advert promised. - more aero bicycle? Bollocks. - car with no traffic? More. - perfect burger? Soggy mess. Fool me once...
- listenallyall 4y ago
  > Pepsi knows advertising in the super bowl is expensive and crowded, but they can't take their superbowl ad budget Kind of ironic, since Pepsi did, in fact, scale back it's Super Bowl advertising this year. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.tastingtable.com/874568/why-pepsi-decided-not-to-sponsor-the-2023-super-bowl-halftime-show/&ved=2ahUKEwiY4pr-_Kj-AhWNN8AKHXtmDSQQFnoECCwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1-UR3x3wDoKXc0TW9Yd2Nz https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...
  - toast0 4y ago
    Huh, I really thought they wouldn't do that twice.
tennisflyi 4y ago
Pepsi can’t stop because Coke would own all the ad space. It’s prisoners dilemma, no?
dtagames 3y ago
The ad industry operates entirely on fear, the fear of executives that, without advertising, no one will buy their products -- or they they'll buy more of the competitor's. There is very little way for sellers to tie the sales of anything to an actual ad impression, so companies with money throw huge amounts of it around trying to get as many impressions as they can. There's no evidence that any particular ad works. The measurement methods and "data science" are all complete BS. The proof is that no advertiser is ever happy with their ad results and so they must constantly create new ones and repeat the cycle of evaluating fake stats.

by gsatic 4y ago

toast0 4y ago

> I really dont understand how the Ad Industry still survives. > Shouldn't we be able to calculate precisely when it makes no sense to pump out more ads. Isn't it sort of like Shannon's channel capacity? Even if the channel is saturated, that doesn't signal the end of the industry. Pepsi knows advertising in the super bowl is expensive and crowded, but they can't take their superbowl ad budget and spend it on feel good projects for local communities, because the sales slump too much. Other beverage sellers must have also taken note from Pepsi's experiment. If the channel capacity is reached, that's not bad for the industry. Slot pricing goes up if there's not enough supply. And if you're paying more to slot your ad, it should be a better ad, so you've got to pay more to make it. There's a saying that 50% of your ads are a waste of money, but which 50%?

gsatic 4y ago
What I guess I am wondering about is what sets the upper bounds/limits to advertising growth and ad funded free content/free service growth? Since attention is finite, and the competition for that finite resource seems to be at all time highs.
pipo234 4y ago
I get that there will always be ads as there will always be projects, products, initiatives, stuff that need a little help getting attention. I'm not so sure about the ad industry, which I believe to be fundamentally way overpriced. Mostly, empires built on ads (news outlets, google, facebook) were built on the assumption that ads work and cost certain amount. So ad budgets have been looking for the best way to be spent. If we were to reconsider the whole rationale, the billions might more likely be millions. Google and facebook will only be able to stay in the black if they abandon intrinsically expensive channels and technologies, like video, complicated slot trading etc.
InCityDreams 4y ago
>which 50% The 50% that doesn't give me what the advert promised. - more aero bicycle? Bollocks. - car with no traffic? More. - perfect burger? Soggy mess. Fool me once...
listenallyall 4y ago
> Pepsi knows advertising in the super bowl is expensive and crowded, but they can't take their superbowl ad budget Kind of ironic, since Pepsi did, in fact, scale back it's Super Bowl advertising this year. https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https://www.tastingtable.com/874568/why-pepsi-decided-not-to-sponsor-the-2023-super-bowl-halftime-show/&ved=2ahUKEwiY4pr-_Kj-AhWNN8AKHXtmDSQQFnoECCwQAQ&usg=AOvVaw1-UR3x3wDoKXc0TW9Yd2Nz https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&source=web&rct=j&url=https:/...
- toast0 4y ago
  Huh, I really thought they wouldn't do that twice.

tennisflyi 4y ago

Pepsi can’t stop because Coke would own all the ad space. It’s prisoners dilemma, no?

dtagames 3y ago

The ad industry operates entirely on fear, the fear of executives that, without advertising, no one will buy their products -- or they they'll buy more of the competitor's. There is very little way for sellers to tie the sales of anything to an actual ad impression, so companies with money throw huge amounts of it around trying to get as many impressions as they can. There's no evidence that any particular ad works. The measurement methods and "data science" are all complete BS. The proof is that no advertiser is ever happy with their ad results and so they must constantly create new ones and repeat the cycle of evaluating fake stats.