[jarebear6expepj]

Ads were the easy part once I stopped trying to run the ad containers and servers myself. When I started it was long waterfall chains of terrible javascript loaders which ended at Google typically. When header bidding came out it made the advertising world orders of magnitude better for end users, ad buyers, AND publishers.

[HWR_14]

> orders of magnitude better for end users, ad buyers, AND publishers.

Well, not end users. They're getting ads.

But I would assume that ad buyers and publishers have exclusive improvements. After all, it's not like the ad companies took a substantially smaller cut. It either lowers the cost to ad buyers or it increases the revenue to publishers. Since it's pretty much the same number, it doesn't seem both can be true.

[jarebear6expepj]

>Well, not end users. They're getting ads.

I think advertising is a powerful way to support 'free'ish content and there are ways to use advertising tastefully. People who don't want to participate have options to opt out and are obviously welcome to not make server requests.

[qup]

I'm supposed to accurately predict whether a website will serve me ads or not, before I've ever connected to it?

Right, not sure why we didn't think of that sooner.

[jarebear6expepj]

Always wear a helmet when browsing the World Wide Web.

[selcuka]

> it was long waterfall chains of terrible javascript loaders

> Well, not end users. They're getting ads.

Why not? Would you prefer ads, or ads with terrible javascript loaders?

[HWR_14]

I would prefer ads with terrible javascript loaders, as they are easier to more completely and reliably block.

[selcuka]

The ads still use javascript; they are just not as "terrible" (a.k.a. waterfall).

[HWR_14]

The waterfall ones were easier to detect and block, IIRC.

[kljsclfdsklj]

Lol what are you talking about? Any improvement in conversion rate is going to help the publisher, the network and the ad buyer.

I’ll just ignore the part about what you said about end users other than to say it’s arguable.

[jarebear6expepj]

When I say 'end user' I guess I am talking about the sheer amount of Javascript loading and computation they no longer had to put up with jumping through waterfalls. Header bidding fixed that which meant that javascript based ads loaded in a significantly more efficient and sane way. Privacy, etc is obviously a different issue.

[HWR_14]

> Any improvement in conversion rate is going to help the publisher, the network and the ad buyer.

Since ad buyers pay per conversion, I don't actually think it helps them to increase the conversion rate.

[fdaslkjlkj23]

Don't be dense. If you pay $5 per conversion, and earn $10 per conversion, you make $5 profit as an ad buyer. What happens if you have 2 conversions? 3? 20? You make more profit.

Alternatively think about the flipside, how in the world could you possibly think having a lower conversion rate is good for the ad buyer? A 0% rate?

[HWR_14]

If you pay $5 per conversion, it doesn't matter if you have 100 impressions per conversion or 10 impressions per conversion. You are pretty conversion rate insensitive.

I mean, obviously it's different at the extremes like 0% vs 100%, but I doubt header-bidding produces that great an effect.