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> "Online ad delivery may take website popularity and keywords in mind, but may have little or no knowledge of audience exclusivity." Except most online ad del

> "Online ad delivery may take website popularity and keywords in mind, but may have little or no knowledge of audience exclusivity." Except most online ad delivery doesn't do that anymore, most ads are bought and sold on the exchanges and are targeted based on user cookie data rather than broad demographics or keywords (most notably retargeting which has experienced hypergrowth over the last few years). Using ad delivery examples from 2011 inane as ad delivery and targeting have both changed massively since then.

autokad 12y ago
I'm not sure why you are getting down-voted. i was surprised when reading the article how inaccurate it was, as almost all major systems have online auctions based off cookie data. I spoke to several CEO's and chief data scientists of these companies that run or purchase these ads. they go almost entirely off your browsing history because nothing shows intent to buy more than one's browser history. This is an important thing to think about because they have to buy the ad regardless if you buy or not, but they only collect money if you make a purchase. I'm just going to make an example so dont get too caught up in details, but say rich people like to use cameras more than poorer people. naive logic would make one think you should know the demographics of the people visiting and then send them a camera ad if they 'have money'. however, just because a rich person 'may' like cameras, it probably doesnt mean they are about to buy one. however, jumping around to certain sites does show a lot about your intent regardless of demographics.
- eli 12y ago
  To be clear, they don't have your whole browsing history, just (at best) the history of sites visited in the same browser that also happened to use ads from the same network. And some ads are CPL/CPA where the advertiser only pays when the user takes some action, but many are still CPM and the advertiser is paying for impressions. But really, I think the dirty little secret of these ad networks is that the targeting doesn't actually work all that well. Despite all the data they should theoretically have about you, it just doesn't work very well. Also, I'd argue search terms are a much better indicator of intent to buy than search history or demographics -- one of the reasons Google ads do so much better than Facebook ads even when Facebook knows much more about you.
  - waterlesscloud 12y ago
    I agree with your last point. Cookie-based ads tend to show me things I've already made a decision about. Often, it's something I've thought about but decided against, or sometimes even things I've already spent money on (which has to be the ultimate waste of an ad). In any case, at the very least, I've already formed a preference on the thing, whereas with a search I typically have no leaning in mind and am thus much more influencable.
  - sjg007 12y ago
    It's only a matter of time until Facebook integrates search or does search.
  - AJ007 12y ago
    There are companies that re-populate cookies. The company formerly known as Rapleaf did this. You use computer A, the you go to device B, log in to some random site that is a Rapleaf partner, and they dropped a cookie connecting you to your other device based on your email address. Not particularly shocking anymore, certainly not as Facebook's new cookieless multi-device ad network rolls out. It is going to be very interesting 10 years or so out when we have physical billboards running facial recognition delivering targeted ads. Perhaps 20 years out, a very customized AI salesperson creates a demographic profile and knows exactly what to say to maximize the probability of us buying. The curious thing about advertising law is that this big data & super targeting stuff has become critical for political campaigns. Laws which throttle back on the privacy encroachment would likely neutralize a lot of the effectiveness of a modern US Presidential campaign.
- romerro 12y ago
  exactly, you nailed this. it is a lot more about your cookies than anything else right now. That might change in the future but the most valuable impressions are still those very basic retargeting impressions to the advertiser.

autokad 12y ago

I'm not sure why you are getting down-voted. i was surprised when reading the article how inaccurate it was, as almost all major systems have online auctions based off cookie data. I spoke to several CEO's and chief data scientists of these companies that run or purchase these ads. they go almost entirely off your browsing history because nothing shows intent to buy more than one's browser history. This is an important thing to think about because they have to buy the ad regardless if you buy or not, but they only collect money if you make a purchase. I'm just going to make an example so dont get too caught up in details, but say rich people like to use cameras more than poorer people. naive logic would make one think you should know the demographics of the people visiting and then send them a camera ad if they 'have money'. however, just because a rich person 'may' like cameras, it probably doesnt mean they are about to buy one. however, jumping around to certain sites does show a lot about your intent regardless of demographics.

eli 12y ago
To be clear, they don't have your whole browsing history, just (at best) the history of sites visited in the same browser that also happened to use ads from the same network. And some ads are CPL/CPA where the advertiser only pays when the user takes some action, but many are still CPM and the advertiser is paying for impressions. But really, I think the dirty little secret of these ad networks is that the targeting doesn't actually work all that well. Despite all the data they should theoretically have about you, it just doesn't work very well. Also, I'd argue search terms are a much better indicator of intent to buy than search history or demographics -- one of the reasons Google ads do so much better than Facebook ads even when Facebook knows much more about you.
- waterlesscloud 12y ago
  I agree with your last point. Cookie-based ads tend to show me things I've already made a decision about. Often, it's something I've thought about but decided against, or sometimes even things I've already spent money on (which has to be the ultimate waste of an ad). In any case, at the very least, I've already formed a preference on the thing, whereas with a search I typically have no leaning in mind and am thus much more influencable.
- sjg007 12y ago
  It's only a matter of time until Facebook integrates search or does search.
- AJ007 12y ago
  There are companies that re-populate cookies. The company formerly known as Rapleaf did this. You use computer A, the you go to device B, log in to some random site that is a Rapleaf partner, and they dropped a cookie connecting you to your other device based on your email address. Not particularly shocking anymore, certainly not as Facebook's new cookieless multi-device ad network rolls out. It is going to be very interesting 10 years or so out when we have physical billboards running facial recognition delivering targeted ads. Perhaps 20 years out, a very customized AI salesperson creates a demographic profile and knows exactly what to say to maximize the probability of us buying. The curious thing about advertising law is that this big data & super targeting stuff has become critical for political campaigns. Laws which throttle back on the privacy encroachment would likely neutralize a lot of the effectiveness of a modern US Presidential campaign.
romerro 12y ago
exactly, you nailed this. it is a lot more about your cookies than anything else right now. That might change in the future but the most valuable impressions are still those very basic retargeting impressions to the advertiser.