[mrlala]

Who is honestly clicking on all these ads that makes advertising worthwhile?

I am honestly baffled sometimes how this all works... In my 30+ years of internet usage in one form or another I have rarely, rarely, rarely ever clicked on a freakin ad. Yes, I've generally had them blocked for the most part. But when they aren't blocked, I see what the content is and why would I even want to click on one!

Color me confused who is keeping the web running by clicking on ads.

[crispinb]

I'm fairly extreme about ad blocking. If I'm aware of seeing an ad anywhere (street, web, cinema), I put the advertised product on a block list and will never buy it. This isn't quite as restrictive as it sounds because I have the facility to mentally tune out ads in public spaces almost completely.

If I were typical, advertising would collapse almost overnight.

The lesson I take from that is that we're just not the people advertisers are aiming at.

[tayo42]

Part of me thinks theres an internet ad bubble. I think its really hard to know how much value an ad provides, so it gets handwaved as being critical to success and worth tons of money. A lot of big internet companies rely on ads or provide services to companies that provide ads or make it easier to use ads.

[Nextgrid]

I wouldn't say that ads are completely ineffective (there's a significant chunk of the population that doesn't resent ads like we do, and will actually click on them even if they're aware that they're ads), but I agree that there's definitely a bubble going on.

I've seen many non-tech people search for a certain brand or product, and despite it being the first non-sponsored search result, they will instead click on the sponsored result/ad ad the top even though it's the same product.

The above causes the metrics and conversion rate to look great, so the waste of oxygen that is the marketing department can justify their salary and budget, the ad providers and all the ecosystem around it also gets paid, but at the end of the day that ad wasn't actually providing any value because the user already had the brand in mind and only clicked the ad by mistake.

[tyfon]

I work in the financial industry and even if the CAC is really high (100s of dollars) it still pales in comparison to the income we get on average from the new customers.

I don't work in marketing but even if I personally hate ads, they unfortunately work really well especially in combination with facebook/googles profile on everyone and the fact that they seem to learn who clicks a certain ad after a few days and only display it to that group.

[asdff]

I think there is just a sub population where ads are truly effective. Look at all the blatant misinformation that gets shared around sites like facebook.

Even before social media and the intrusion of internet use in our lives, people were buying enough crap off of QVC to keep that show on the air (and still are).

[bllguo]

this is outdated by something like a decade, at least. reach aside, the whole draw of internet advertising is that you can actually quantify the effect of your ads and tie them to real revenue events

I suppose it's fun to think that billions yearly are being thrown into the bonfire, but that's just not the reality

[paradox101]

Anectada: Facebook ads have been able to figure out the kind of clothing my girlfriend likes and comes up with very relevant clothing ads now. These ads do get clicked on, once in a while, and result in actual sales.

I think the reason the advertisements have become so good at targeting her is because she likes looking up clothing on Pinterest.

[scarejunba]

Lots of people. I'm responsible for a few hundred dollars of consumption from my Instagram ads for festival gear.

We send each other concert ads over Insta far too often for it not to be effective.

Either way, though, neither of our experiences tell the whole story. The truth is in the metrics and I used to be in the ad tech industry. The metrics are solid. Especially on the guys who own the platform: Google w/ search and Facebook which just attracts users like nothing else on its properties.