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> there's a pretty fair chance that the advertiser has done that math As an occasional admittedly naive experimenter with ads – it’s far more likely that the p

by Swizec 3y ago

> there's a pretty fair chance that the advertiser has done that math As an occasional admittedly naive experimenter with ads – it’s far more likely that the platform has done the math and showing you the ad is profitable to them, not the advertiser. Google et al love nothing more than to burn your entire ad budget on cheap clicks from countries that will never buy anything. But the number of “ad conversions” looks high and graph go up! Getting these platforms to do what you want is a literal full-time job. Hell, in bigger companies you have entire teams doing nothing more than bending over backwards to get these platforms to do the useful thing instead of setting money on fire. The algorithms love setting money on fire. It’s a lot like giving your 3 wishes to a genie, you have to be very specific.

crobertsbmw 3y ago
I’m not sure this is true. Facebook makes a lot more money from me if my ads are converting, and I continue to spend money day after day. If they just burn my money and I’m not seeing enough conversions out of it, then I kill my ads and start trying my luck with Twitter or Pinterest ads..
- Swizec 3y ago
  > I’m not sure this is true I can assure you it is very true that it takes a lot of skill to get ad platforms to do what you want. They do not care about you. The algorithm will make The Metric go up and that’s a threat. It’s your job to make it a good metric.
  - Supermancho 3y ago
    While people relying on a 3rd party platform are under the whims and methodologies that an opaque 3rd party platform may provide, in first party AdServing (which I am involved with), the algorithm is not tailored to "your" metric. Data driven analysis is done by all major online retailers. It's quite effective and part of the reason that features and products seem to disappear, more often than supply chain disruption would indicate or the common perception might belie. While I'm sure some companies have some "reliable" 3rd party + 1st party metrics that affect their bottom line, they don't need more until the trends start to invert, and then they just don't have the data for marginal short-term experiments. This causes these companies to make sweeping changes that a 3rd party will not help tool around...leaving the company to decide the changes either 1) help climb returns (overall), 2) hurt returns, 3) most commonly, show nothing at all. It's flailing in the dark, hoping for an external force to turn things around. The company that is still relying on someone else's platform are dinosaurs and small players. Sometimes they are able to climb out of it due to externalities or developing their own platform.
- moneywoes 3y ago
  Perhaps they optimize enough to give you the minimum conversions to stay
- HWR_14 3y ago
  > Facebook makes a lot more money from me if my ads are converting, and I continue to spend money day after day. There are a lot of small companies in the world. Would Facebook miss you as an advertiser?

by Swizec 3y ago

crobertsbmw 3y ago

I’m not sure this is true. Facebook makes a lot more money from me if my ads are converting, and I continue to spend money day after day. If they just burn my money and I’m not seeing enough conversions out of it, then I kill my ads and start trying my luck with Twitter or Pinterest ads..

Swizec 3y ago
> I’m not sure this is true I can assure you it is very true that it takes a lot of skill to get ad platforms to do what you want. They do not care about you. The algorithm will make The Metric go up and that’s a threat. It’s your job to make it a good metric.
- Supermancho 3y ago
  While people relying on a 3rd party platform are under the whims and methodologies that an opaque 3rd party platform may provide, in first party AdServing (which I am involved with), the algorithm is not tailored to "your" metric. Data driven analysis is done by all major online retailers. It's quite effective and part of the reason that features and products seem to disappear, more often than supply chain disruption would indicate or the common perception might belie. While I'm sure some companies have some "reliable" 3rd party + 1st party metrics that affect their bottom line, they don't need more until the trends start to invert, and then they just don't have the data for marginal short-term experiments. This causes these companies to make sweeping changes that a 3rd party will not help tool around...leaving the company to decide the changes either 1) help climb returns (overall), 2) hurt returns, 3) most commonly, show nothing at all. It's flailing in the dark, hoping for an external force to turn things around. The company that is still relying on someone else's platform are dinosaurs and small players. Sometimes they are able to climb out of it due to externalities or developing their own platform.
moneywoes 3y ago
Perhaps they optimize enough to give you the minimum conversions to stay
HWR_14 3y ago
> Facebook makes a lot more money from me if my ads are converting, and I continue to spend money day after day. There are a lot of small companies in the world. Would Facebook miss you as an advertiser?