• theparadox@lemmy.world
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    2 days ago

    There is actually an argument that advertisers like Google are abusing micro targeting to extract advertising revenue from clients while, at least in some cases, delivering few actual new customers.

    Here’s the process.

    1. Google sees that your profile (browsing habits, demographics, search patterns, etc) suggest you are interested in product A.
    2. Google blasts you with advertisements for product A, essentially marking your browser session and claiming you as a recipient of their advertising. Ever look at a particular product and find you are being advertised for that product incessantly for a while?
    3. If you happen to buy product A around the time that your session was shown an advertisement for that product, Google claims you as a conversion and gets paid for convincing you to buy the product. Advertising works!

    So if Google’s algorithm thinks you are already going to buy product A, they show you an ad for product A constantly because it means they’ll claim you as an advertising success and get paid extra.

    • JackbyDev@programming.dev
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      12 hours ago

      Me: “I am going to the grocery store.”

      Google: “Groceries, go go go!”

      Me: “I’ve bought groceries.”

      Google: “Another win!”

    • Rusty@lemmy.ca
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      1 day ago

      Ever look at a particular product and find you are being advertised for that product incessantly for a while?

      No, I use uBlock origin and I only see online ads when I’m forced to look at someone else’s computer.

    • snooggums@piefed.world
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      1 day ago

      It is like encouragement for the thing you were already likely to do, which is the goal of targeted advertising.

      Now if you purchased something, then got the ads afterwards and they counted it retroactively then they would be abusing it. I’m 99% sure they do that.

      • theparadox@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        It is like encouragement for the thing you were already likely to do, which is the goal of targeted advertising.

        It’s the claim of targeted advertising. The person I saw talking about this actually ran the numbers, comparing two very similar geographic markets. In market A they paid for advertising, but in B they did not.

        When comparing market A to market B, market A had a marginal increase in sales for the advertised product vs. market B. However, they were charged for orders of magnitude more conversions than the actual increase in sales.

        The idea is that when compared to something like actual click-through purchases, where a user literally clicks on an ad and then buys a product, it’s extremely deceptive.

      • Blue_Morpho@lemmy.world
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        1 day ago

        Now if you purchased something, then got the ads afterwards and they counted it retroactively then they would be abusing it. I’m 99% sure they do that.

        That explains everything!

        No doubt their ads are monthly/quarterly purchases. So Google reports the end of month “conversions” when in reality it’s ads shown during the month but happened after the sale.