[locallost]

I don't get this bombardment with ads anymore. For all the talk of targeted ads I routinely get them for products like tampons which I definitely do not need. Most of the time it's some noise I hear until I can press the skip button. I can't really remember what's the last time I bought something I saw on an ad.

[walterbell]

Advertising is also convenient camouflage for data collection.

[goda90]

What's the reason for data collection though?

[happymellon]

To sell to other data collection agencies.

Ultimately I'm not sure there is an end goal, except figuring out reasons to extract more money out of VC's. Buying consumer data to confirm your biases is probably a good one.

[smt88]

Just because ads don't work on you doesn't mean they don't work.

If ads are cheap and margins for your product are high, you don't care if your ad bounces off of 1,000 people as long as it turns 1 into a paying customer.

[gedy]

Then why the "targeted" ads and data harvesting? For all the effort, ads are still mostly totally irrelevant and may as well be random.

[ijidak]

Targeted is a relative term.

It may be very targeted compared to traditional television and radio advertising.

Yet it could still be less targeted than ideal.

Let's say my ad was profitable via traditional radio and television advertising.

If only 1% of viewers were in my target audience for traditional television and radio advertising, and Roku can get that number to 2%, they've just doubled my roi.

Targeted doesn't mean perfect, it just means better.

[smt88]

Talk to someone who heavily uses Instagram. I guarantee the ads there have gotten them to buy something. I never succumbed to ads until using IG in the last few years.

[gedy]

I do as well and it's similar random stuff. I guess I'm not a heavy "liker" of posts so maybe that screws up the algo.

I used to be a heavy Facebook user though and in spite of them having loads of data about me and my interests, the ads were crap.

[anonzzzies]

I cannot imagine they make more money off me with ads than just asking me money to buy them away like YouTube premium (minus that they allow sponsors in the videos which I think should be a violation if I have Premium but ok). So why don’t they offer that; let me pay something to stop tracking, snooping etc and showing ads. I have never clicked an ad in my life.

[eru]

Alas, if you let the people with enough money pay for making the ads go away, your remaining ad audience will be poorer on average, and perhaps less interesting for ad space buyers.

[anonzzzies]

That makes sense. Shame people don’t drop overly ad ridden platforms as there are no usable alternatives.

[eru]

Well, it's all about compromises. The market mostly provides what people are willing to pay for.

Yes, it's a shame that other people have different preferences from me sometimes, so that the market for what I want is smaller. But, hey, variety is the spice of life.

You can get pretty far with ad-blockers.

[rodonn]

This is why targeted advertising is so much more effective than un-targeted. On Facebook/Instagram I frequently see ads for products I was not aware of that are relevant to my interests.

[anonzzzies]

> On Facebook/Instagram I frequently see ads for products

I never have that; it’s always irrelevant stuff OR stuff I just bought (because the ad tracking know I was on that other site looking at that product; somehow they don’t know I bought it so now I get weeks of a product I no longer want to buy aka fully useless) so will definitely not buy again.

[LtWorf]

On fb I mostly see advertisement for programming courses.

Of course with a master of science in computer science, after years and years of posting links to my open source projects; what I need the most is a programming course or a no code platform.