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The problem I have is the really shitty targeting. With as much as Google must know about me, their ads usually are about stuff I have absolutely no interest in

The problem I have is the really shitty targeting. With as much as Google must know about me, their ads usually are about stuff I have absolutely no interest in. I am from smaller country, so I get that the pool of advertisers must be smaller too. I bought a new bike this year and religiously researched this topic and consumed a ton of cycling videos. What ads do I see? Cars. I don't have a driver's license. Facebook isn't any better. Last year I was in South Korea and logged into Facebook once. After my return, FB managed to exclusively display ads in Korean for over a month. Then there are the occasions where you research a topic, buy a product, and then get to see ads for the product you already bought for a year after (I saw ads for the NI Maschine midi controller for over a year after my purchase).

dsuth 13y ago
You want to talk about shitty targeting, I pull up a Radiohead clip and the entire background becomes an ad for Rihanna. Great work YouTube.
benackles 13y ago
It's surprising that none of these content providers are delivering targeted ads. You're totally right, for as much information as we've given these companies, video ads remain completely irrelevant to individuals. For online video in general, it seems like Facebook is the company missing the largest opportunity. With the demographic information they've acquired over the years, they could easily leverage Facebook Connect on all the video platforms where authentication is utilized. It seems like the hardest part is building up ad inventory to support various demographics.
xerophtye 13y ago
For me, i visit a google-ad website once, or click an ad once, it starts showing up EVERYWHERE. Examples: Leap Motion, and one other vacation site that lets you book hotels in Maldives. Heck, what ever happened to RELEVANT ads? Why not show me more cool tech products?
damon_c 13y ago
Yes. I just bought a desk last week. Now all I see is ads for desks! Having just bought a desk, I am probably among the people least likely in the universe to buy a desk! If there was a button that said, "No Thanks, I just got one of these", I'd push it just to help out.
Amadou 13y ago
The problem I have is the really shitty targeting. I strongly believe, to the point of it being an article of faith, that effective relevant ad targeting will never happen, that it is an AI problem that can't be solved without enormous improvements in AI technology. I suspect that what will happen is that industry will give up on trying to do relevance and focus on manipulation -- the big brother version of nubile women in commercials for beer. They'll stop trying to show you stuff that you want to buy, but they will have ~10 different ads for some product X and they will pick the specific ad most likely to convince you to buy product X based on the profile they have of you.

dsuth 13y ago

You want to talk about shitty targeting, I pull up a Radiohead clip and the entire background becomes an ad for Rihanna. Great work YouTube.

benackles 13y ago

It's surprising that none of these content providers are delivering targeted ads. You're totally right, for as much information as we've given these companies, video ads remain completely irrelevant to individuals. For online video in general, it seems like Facebook is the company missing the largest opportunity. With the demographic information they've acquired over the years, they could easily leverage Facebook Connect on all the video platforms where authentication is utilized. It seems like the hardest part is building up ad inventory to support various demographics.

xerophtye 13y ago

For me, i visit a google-ad website once, or click an ad once, it starts showing up EVERYWHERE. Examples: Leap Motion, and one other vacation site that lets you book hotels in Maldives. Heck, what ever happened to RELEVANT ads? Why not show me more cool tech products?

damon_c 13y ago

Yes. I just bought a desk last week. Now all I see is ads for desks! Having just bought a desk, I am probably among the people least likely in the universe to buy a desk! If there was a button that said, "No Thanks, I just got one of these", I'd push it just to help out.

Amadou 13y ago

The problem I have is the really shitty targeting. I strongly believe, to the point of it being an article of faith, that effective relevant ad targeting will never happen, that it is an AI problem that can't be solved without enormous improvements in AI technology. I suspect that what will happen is that industry will give up on trying to do relevance and focus on manipulation -- the big brother version of nubile women in commercials for beer. They'll stop trying to show you stuff that you want to buy, but they will have ~10 different ads for some product X and they will pick the specific ad most likely to convince you to buy product X based on the profile they have of you.