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Honestly the ads on Instagram are kind of nice. They’re definitely the best ads I see by a wide margin - mostly likely to actually be stuff I’m interested in.

by jitl 3y ago

ddoolin 3y ago
I used to agree with this but it seems in the last few years especially that they have increased greatly in number and decreased in quality substantially. Somehow it remains the most relevant regardless, which really says something about most ads on most other platforms.
- dado3212 3y ago
  Out of curiosity, did you opt out of ad tracking?
  - ddoolin 3y ago
    Apparently I did; I'd forgotten all about that. That may well have had a big hand in it.
dzader 3y ago
[dead]
smallerfish 3y ago
That was the best punch in the face I've had in a long time. Deeply relevant to our conversation, and I kind of deserved it.
linguae 3y ago
I admit too that Facebook's ads are the most relevant and most tasteful from any site I've used. For example, from a Facebook ad I found out about battery-backed generators that are capable of charging an electric vehicle. Facebook's ads, in my opinion, also tend to be non-annoying. I haven't had to deal with video ads, ads that interfere with the user experience, and grotesque ads featuring toenail fungus and creepy-looking images. My complaint with Facebook, though, has more to do with the live feed algorithm recommendations, where I have to sift through memes and other viral posts I'm not interested in as well as viral political posts that often post misinformation. I miss the old days of Facebook where my feed was strictly limited to posts from my friends, plus the occasional ad.
- RajT88 3y ago
  Really? Facebook, while not the worst or most tasteless ads, are overwhelmingly scammy in my feed.* "Going out of business" sales for fast fashion websites only a month old. Crowdfunding projects which obviously are just clones other products. Items with a slick video which if you buy them from any other place, they cost half to a third the price. *last I used Facebook for any significant amount of time, which has been a while.
  - celestialcheese 3y ago
    Do you run a pi-hole or other ad blocking on your network? Or do you have personalized ads turned off in your facebook settings? This could be why you see less targeted ads. Scams, high-ctr and broad appeal ads thrive in places where targeting doesn't exist because their margins can support it. Watch a show on cable or broadcast these days for an example of this.
    - RajT88 3y ago
      Chrome with adblock is all.
- phyrex 3y ago
  That’s just the default feed, there’s also one just for your friends
cmcaleer 3y ago
I tried to sign up for Instagram and got banned within minutes of signing up and couldn’t get signed up. Eventually since I came to ‘need’ it as my social circle have moved on from Twitter I bought an account on the grey market. The main ads I got were for forged EU identification documents. It really shows where Meta spend their money. This is probably an excellent ad for someone in a position where they want to make money by creating and selling Instagram accounts. This is also a very easy genre of ad to spot for a company on the bleeding edge of NLP. The advertisers don’t even use euphemisms, their feed is just pictures of dozens of passports and visas. It’s still up weeks later. I’m obviously used to online platforms being careless about who they run ads for, but official ads brazenly selling identity documents was certainly a new one!
- dantyti 3y ago
  related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37248748 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37248748 "Most of My Instagram Ads Are for Drugs, Stolen Credit Cards, Hacked Accounts, Counterfeit Money, and Weapons"

Honestly the ads on Instagram are kind of nice. They’re definitely the best ads I see by a wide margin - mostly likely to actually be stuff I’m interested in.

by jitl 3y ago

Honestly the ads on Instagram are kind of nice. They’re definitely the best ads I see by a wide margin - mostly likely to actually be stuff I’m interested in.

ddoolin 3y ago

I used to agree with this but it seems in the last few years especially that they have increased greatly in number and decreased in quality substantially. Somehow it remains the most relevant regardless, which really says something about most ads on most other platforms.

dado3212 3y ago
Out of curiosity, did you opt out of ad tracking?
- ddoolin 3y ago
  Apparently I did; I'd forgotten all about that. That may well have had a big hand in it.

dzader 3y ago

[dead]

smallerfish 3y ago

That was the best punch in the face I've had in a long time. Deeply relevant to our conversation, and I kind of deserved it.

linguae 3y ago

I admit too that Facebook's ads are the most relevant and most tasteful from any site I've used. For example, from a Facebook ad I found out about battery-backed generators that are capable of charging an electric vehicle. Facebook's ads, in my opinion, also tend to be non-annoying. I haven't had to deal with video ads, ads that interfere with the user experience, and grotesque ads featuring toenail fungus and creepy-looking images. My complaint with Facebook, though, has more to do with the live feed algorithm recommendations, where I have to sift through memes and other viral posts I'm not interested in as well as viral political posts that often post misinformation. I miss the old days of Facebook where my feed was strictly limited to posts from my friends, plus the occasional ad.

RajT88 3y ago
Really? Facebook, while not the worst or most tasteless ads, are overwhelmingly scammy in my feed.* "Going out of business" sales for fast fashion websites only a month old. Crowdfunding projects which obviously are just clones other products. Items with a slick video which if you buy them from any other place, they cost half to a third the price. *last I used Facebook for any significant amount of time, which has been a while.
- celestialcheese 3y ago
  Do you run a pi-hole or other ad blocking on your network? Or do you have personalized ads turned off in your facebook settings? This could be why you see less targeted ads. Scams, high-ctr and broad appeal ads thrive in places where targeting doesn't exist because their margins can support it. Watch a show on cable or broadcast these days for an example of this.
  - RajT88 3y ago
    Chrome with adblock is all.
phyrex 3y ago
That’s just the default feed, there’s also one just for your friends

cmcaleer 3y ago

I tried to sign up for Instagram and got banned within minutes of signing up and couldn’t get signed up. Eventually since I came to ‘need’ it as my social circle have moved on from Twitter I bought an account on the grey market. The main ads I got were for forged EU identification documents. It really shows where Meta spend their money. This is probably an excellent ad for someone in a position where they want to make money by creating and selling Instagram accounts. This is also a very easy genre of ad to spot for a company on the bleeding edge of NLP. The advertisers don’t even use euphemisms, their feed is just pictures of dozens of passports and visas. It’s still up weeks later. I’m obviously used to online platforms being careless about who they run ads for, but official ads brazenly selling identity documents was certainly a new one!

dantyti 3y ago
related: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37248748 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=37248748 "Most of My Instagram Ads Are for Drugs, Stolen Credit Cards, Hacked Accounts, Counterfeit Money, and Weapons"