[rrrx3]

I work in Ad Tech. This is on target.

The user was lumped into a poorly-constructed lookalike audience because of some stretched interest similarities.

What you're experiencing is the confluence of two distinct issues:

1. The CTRs on digital advertising are dropping YoY. People DO NOT click on ads, even if they are saliently targeted. There are enough trash ads out there, there's so much malware and malfeasance in the ecosystem, that it's worthwhile for users to at best _ignore_ and at worst (for advertisers) _to block ads totally_.

2. The desire to target people that match specific criteria is rising because of misguided notions throughout the advertising and marketing industry. This has driven the entire industry to push machine learned modeling to find each and every set of eyeballs out there to try and justify spend, instead of offering worthwhile and valuable offers that compel consumers to interact. You have entire systems constructed on the notion that the more people you get an ad in front of, the more valuable it is, and agencies and trading desk operators that are looking at this as the sole KPI to focus on, to the detriment of everyone involved.

[korethr]

> There are enough trash ads out there, there's so much malware and malfeasance in the ecosystem, that it's worthwhile for users to at best _ignore_ and at worst (for advertisers) _to block ads totally_.

Having spent as much time on the Internet as I have, I miss those optimistic early years when this wasn't yet the case, or at least, it wasn't as bad is it is now. Oh, there were junk BS ads in the early public Internet (e.g. "Shock the monkey and win a free Peter Gabriel CD!"). But, back in the late 90s and early 00s, at least some of the ads led to something interesting, entertaining, or useful, and thus were worth the click. Either that, or I was a lot more naive and trusting than I am now. Perhaps both.

[jimbob45]

It sounds like what you're saying is that online ads are becoming less and less effective due to customers getting trained to ignore/block ads. However, companies are responding by attempting to improve their ad targeting instead of facing the reality that online ads aren't effective anymore.

What will happen in five years when advertisers have to face the reality through numbers that online ads don't work anymore?

[PretzelFisch]

I think you will see the online ad-bubble pop, and probably then next recession because of it.

[lioeters]

That's how I see it too.

The other day I came across a headline where Facebook announced that they removed 3 billion fake accounts. It made me wonder whether advertisers were paying to show ads to those accounts.

My view is that the bubble is bursting from the side of the advertisers realizing the in/effectiveness of ads; and from the side of the "advertisees", people generally becoming aware that ads are a security/privacy issue, and ignoring or blocking them altogether.

Relative to the amount of data tracking (theft of privacy) that goes on, most ads are shockingly irrelevant. It's about time the bubble popped.

[jodrellblank]

I work in Ad Tech. This is on target. [..] People DO NOT click on ads

Was there ever a serious belief that people clicked on ads willingly and intentionally?

I mean a real serious "people want to click ads", and not a "of course people click on ads which are relevant and helpful - as all adverts always are, nudge nudge wink wink"?