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Okay, I'll risk being "that guy" who starts about adblock, but I seriously tend to forget that there even is advertising on the web, let alone that it is still

by rickmb 14y ago

Okay, I'll risk being "that guy" who starts about adblock, but I seriously tend to forget that there even is advertising on the web, let alone that it is still a source of revenue for anyone else but Google. I've always considered it one of those walking dead business-models, like printed newspapers, and it regularly surprises me the practice is still alive and well. I would be terrified to let my business depend on it.

jerhewet 14y ago
> a source of revenue for anyone else but Google My theory is that internet advertising is a zero-sum game (out of the left-hand pocket into the right-hand pocket sort of thing), but there hasn't been any serious, credible research to prove or disprove my intuitions. And no, "serious" and "credible" do not apply to companies that sell internet advertising and point to their own (air quotes) reasearch as proof that internet advertising works. AdBlock Plus and Ghostery for the win, by the way.
- rgbrenner 14y ago
  let me get this straight.. you think companies are spending billions every year on advertising without any proof, ROI figures, just solely from the seat of their pants without any research, studies, etc? I assume because a company like Walmart, for example, with a profit margin of 3%, is so flush with cash they just throw around $600 million+ every year without any thought. Amazing. I own an ecommerce store, 10 years. I can tell you that internet advertising does more than pay for itself if you control the costs, track the sales that result from it, etc (which is standard practice in internet advertising). That's why when GM said they spent 10m+ on facebook with a very poor ROI, it was big news. Advertisers will test new platforms like facebook, and when they fail to perform, they will abandon them very quickly. Google has lasted this long not because advertisers are stupid, but because Google's Adwords has a positive ROI.
  - jerhewet 14y ago
    Still waiting for those links to serious, credible research. Yeah. I didn't think so.
    - rgbrenner 14y ago
      Look, I'm not going to go Google articles for you. You're perfectly capable of doing that yourself. We're talking about an industry with 140+ billion annually in revenue in the US alone (w/ about 35b spent on the internet). If you think there isn't research on it, you're kidding yourself.

by rickmb 14y ago

jerhewet 14y ago

> a source of revenue for anyone else but Google My theory is that internet advertising is a zero-sum game (out of the left-hand pocket into the right-hand pocket sort of thing), but there hasn't been any serious, credible research to prove or disprove my intuitions. And no, "serious" and "credible" do not apply to companies that sell internet advertising and point to their own (air quotes) reasearch as proof that internet advertising works. AdBlock Plus and Ghostery for the win, by the way.

rgbrenner 14y ago
let me get this straight.. you think companies are spending billions every year on advertising without any proof, ROI figures, just solely from the seat of their pants without any research, studies, etc? I assume because a company like Walmart, for example, with a profit margin of 3%, is so flush with cash they just throw around $600 million+ every year without any thought. Amazing. I own an ecommerce store, 10 years. I can tell you that internet advertising does more than pay for itself if you control the costs, track the sales that result from it, etc (which is standard practice in internet advertising). That's why when GM said they spent 10m+ on facebook with a very poor ROI, it was big news. Advertisers will test new platforms like facebook, and when they fail to perform, they will abandon them very quickly. Google has lasted this long not because advertisers are stupid, but because Google's Adwords has a positive ROI.
- jerhewet 14y ago
  Still waiting for those links to serious, credible research. Yeah. I didn't think so.
  - rgbrenner 14y ago
    Look, I'm not going to go Google articles for you. You're perfectly capable of doing that yourself. We're talking about an industry with 140+ billion annually in revenue in the US alone (w/ about 35b spent on the internet). If you think there isn't research on it, you're kidding yourself.