What will happen when advertisers learn that no one is actually clicking on their ads except bots and no one is listening to or watching their ads?
Collapse of the internet?
What will happen when advertisers learn that no one is actually clicking on their ads except bots and no one is listening to or watching their ads?
Collapse of the internet?
maybe, but if someone decides to divide by zero at the same time..... it;ll be a black hole
I don't know if it helps, but it has become routine muscle memory to mark every ad on social media as spam as I scroll.
Call me Sisyphus and ads are my boulder.
They thought they got smart by not letting you view content with ad blockers running, then their traffic dropped.
But I'm always amazed at the number of people not running ad blockers already.
RevRico said:They thought they got smart by not letting you view content with ad blockers running, then their traffic dropped.
But I'm always amazed at the number of people not running ad blockers already.
Running ad blockers and just go elsewhere if I can't view content.
I feel like Raid: Shadow Legends is some sort of money-laundering scheme. I see their ads every-berkeleying-where and they sponsor all sorts of channels on Youtube but never once have I met a person who plays or played Raid: Shadow Legends.
noddaz said:What will happen when advertisers learn that no one is actually clicking on their ads except bots and no one is listening to or watching their ads?
Collapse of the internet?
Me. I'm what happens. I'm a content marketing specialist. My ads don't scream "BUY ME", they whisper it. And it works when applied across a broad spectrum marketing effort.
slefain said:noddaz said:What will happen when advertisers learn that no one is actually clicking on their ads except bots and no one is listening to or watching their ads?
Collapse of the internet?
Me. I'm what happens. I'm a content marketing specialist. My ads don't scream "BUY ME", they whisper it. And it works when applied across a broad spectrum marketing effort.
People in your area are using THIS ONE COOL TRICK for whispering broad efforts! You won't believe #3!
I've gotten pretty good about blocking them out visually. I just don't pay attention to them. And I would never click one. Theoretically, if I saw an ad for something that was of interest to me, I would go directly to the website by typing in the URL. If the ad is obnoxious or a little too "aggressive" it is far more likely to elicit a "well, I'll never buy from that company" response than a sale.
Modern-day advertising and marketing is a scourge upon this earth.
The ads might be things you don't like, but that is a good thing. Sooner or later they will know the only ads GRMers click on are the ones that show the clearance rack at Jegs.com.
1988RedT2 said:Modern-day advertising and marketing is a scourge upon this earth.
Here's my struggle: I don't really have a substantial disagreement with that sentiment, but what model does work? If all the content went behind paywalls there would be a dramatic decrease in content providers pretty quickly. Do we levy a "content tax" on every mobile phone plan and internet connection and then try to figure out who counts as a content creator that would get a share? Do we eliminate ovbious ads in favor of having the advertisers write the content directly? I am certainly part of the problem with my own ad blockers and all that, but it does seem like serving up ads along with content is the lesser of the available evils.
In reply to wae :
But really, what are the ads for? I buy things because people recommended them or research shows me a product will solve a problem I have. Not because some blinking light on a website or those godawful television commercials told me to. Over advertising will push me to actively avoid and discourage a product from others as well.
RevRico said:In reply to wae :
But really, what are the ads for? I buy things because people recommended them or research shows me a product will solve a problem I have. Not because some blinking light on a website or those godawful television commercials told me to. Over advertising will push me to actively avoid and discourage a product from others as well.
Exactly. Ads are just a visual version of junk telemarketing phone calls.
Edit: Most ads are lies aimed at separating a potential customer from his money. A truly honest product sells itself. This is the relevant quote I was looking for, from the wiki:
"Build a better mousetrap, and the world will beat a path to your door" is a phrase attributed to Ralph Waldo Emerson in the late nineteenth century.[1][2] The phrase is actually a misquotation of the statement:
If a man has good corn or wood, or boards, or pigs, to sell, or can make better chairs or knives, crucibles or church organs, than anybody else, you will find a broad hard-beaten road to his house, though it be in the woods.
— Ralph Waldo Emerson, [2]
Subscription services. Netflix seems to be doing pretty well. Plenty of content generation.
In reply to RevRico :
While I suppose that the last couple of hundred years of a business model might be completely wrong in every way, I'm inclined to believe that if advertising didn't work at all, there wouldn't be so many billions of dollars spent on it, yknow?
I am still surprised a group of websites hasn't gotten together and come up with some standards for ads that are not overly obnoxious(no popups/popovers/audio/self starting video, redirects, etc) and are incapable of copying malware to your device. If there were, and an adblocker had the option of whitelisting all those sites, I'd be okay with it. As it is now, my adblocker only allows the GRM site to display ads, and only on my mobile devices, I'm still paranoid about my Windows PC.
wae said:slefain said:noddaz said:What will happen when advertisers learn that no one is actually clicking on their ads except bots and no one is listening to or watching their ads?
Collapse of the internet?
Me. I'm what happens. I'm a content marketing specialist. My ads don't scream "BUY ME", they whisper it. And it works when applied across a broad spectrum marketing effort.
People in your area are using THIS ONE COOL TRICK for whispering broad efforts! You won't believe #3!
Hey, we have to start somewhere!
Step behind the curtain with me for an example...
Think more along the lines of seeing a "how to install" a product article in a magazine. Many moons ago that product would have been given to a writer for free, then it was up to the writer to pitch a magazine on buying that article. The writer got paid by the magazine (costing the magazine money) and the manufacturer got cheap marketing.
But after the magazine bloodbath years ago things shifted. Some manufacturers started hiring writers themelves to create articles about how to install a product, then the manufacturer's PR rep would offer up a 4,6 or even 8 page article to a magazine for FREE. A print magazine editor on a shoestring budget (like I was at the time) gladly snaps it up to pad page numbers to keep the sales manager happy. The writer got paid directly by the manufacturer, and the magazine bottom line survived.
I'm the guy who works for the manufacturers handing out free content to whoever wants to use it. That's my world now.
NOTE: GRM DOES NOT RUN THEIR MAGAZINE LIKE I I ONCE DID! But editors like me who answered to a mega corporate overlord know what I'm talking about.
wae said:In reply to RevRico :
While I suppose that the last couple of hundred years of a business model might be completely wrong in every way, I'm inclined to believe that if advertising didn't work at all, there wouldn't be so many billions of dollars spent on it, yknow?
Well, do you buy Coca Cola because a polar bear in a Santa hat drinks it, or because you like the taste of paint stripper and it's the only drink available?
I feel like it's a chicken and egg type situation with no winners.
slefain said:wae said:slefain said:noddaz said:What will happen when advertisers learn that no one is actually clicking on their ads except bots and no one is listening to or watching their ads?
Collapse of the internet?
Me. I'm what happens. I'm a content marketing specialist. My ads don't scream "BUY ME", they whisper it. And it works when applied across a broad spectrum marketing effort.
People in your area are using THIS ONE COOL TRICK for whispering broad efforts! You won't believe #3!
Hey, we have to start somewhere!
Step behind the curtain with me for an example...
Think more along the lines of seeing a "how to install" a product article in a magazine. Many moons ago that product would have been given to a writer for free, then it was up to the writer to pitch a magazine on buying that article. The writer got paid by the magazine (costing the magazine money) and the manufacturer got cheap marketing.
But after the magazine bloodbath years ago things shifted. Some manufacturers started hiring writers themelves to create articles about how to install a product, then the manufacturer's PR rep would offer up a 4,6 or even 8 page article to a magazine for FREE. A print magazine editor on a shoestring budget (like I was at the time) gladly snaps it up to pad page numbers to keep the sales manager happy. The writer got paid directly by the manufacturer, and the magazine bottom line survived.I'm the guy who works for the manufacturers handing out free content to whoever wants to use it. That's my world now.
NOTE: GRM DOES NOT RUN THEIR MAGAZINE LIKE I I ONCE DID! But editors like me who answered to a mega corporate overlord know what I'm talking about.
No, we don't. And ironically, after the magazine bloodbath a couple years ago, we were all pumped to score some first-class, newly unemployed editors for our team. But we never found that newfound availability of quality people; they just went right to work for the manufacturers.
Margie
Marjorie Suddard said:slefain said:wae said:slefain said:noddaz said:What will happen when advertisers learn that no one is actually clicking on their ads except bots and no one is listening to or watching their ads?
Collapse of the internet?
Me. I'm what happens. I'm a content marketing specialist. My ads don't scream "BUY ME", they whisper it. And it works when applied across a broad spectrum marketing effort.
People in your area are using THIS ONE COOL TRICK for whispering broad efforts! You won't believe #3!
Hey, we have to start somewhere!
Step behind the curtain with me for an example...
Think more along the lines of seeing a "how to install" a product article in a magazine. Many moons ago that product would have been given to a writer for free, then it was up to the writer to pitch a magazine on buying that article. The writer got paid by the magazine (costing the magazine money) and the manufacturer got cheap marketing.
But after the magazine bloodbath years ago things shifted. Some manufacturers started hiring writers themelves to create articles about how to install a product, then the manufacturer's PR rep would offer up a 4,6 or even 8 page article to a magazine for FREE. A print magazine editor on a shoestring budget (like I was at the time) gladly snaps it up to pad page numbers to keep the sales manager happy. The writer got paid directly by the manufacturer, and the magazine bottom line survived.I'm the guy who works for the manufacturers handing out free content to whoever wants to use it. That's my world now.
NOTE: GRM DOES NOT RUN THEIR MAGAZINE LIKE I I ONCE DID! But editors like me who answered to a mega corporate overlord know what I'm talking about.No, we don't. And ironically, after the magazine bloodbath a couple years ago, we were all pumped to score some first-class, newly unemployed editors for our team. But we never found that newfound availability of quality people; they just went right to work for the manufacturers.
Margie
GRM is one of the last bastions of true magazine publishing left. I respect the hell out of how your team runs the place. That's why I wanted to denote that you don't do things the way I did. Keep fighting the good fight down there.
Marjorie Suddard said:No, we don't. And ironically, after the magazine bloodbath a couple years ago, we were all pumped to score some first-class, newly unemployed editors for our team. But we never found that newfound availability of quality people; they just went right to work for the manufacturers.
Margie
And because of the way you guys run the show, integrate the ads in an intelligent manner (reading an article on fuel injection and there's a SniperEFI ad right there), I actually browse the ads in your 'zine. I don't know how you quantify that value to your manufacturers, but as a real live consumer, it works for me because it adds value to the articles.
I don't think I can tell you the names of any of the watch manufacturers in C&D, though.
In reply to RevRico :
Nobody buys Coca-Cola because they think that if animated polar bears drink it, it must be good. Nobody's buying Budwieser because they like big draft horses. It's about putting the brand in your brain along with positive associations. And, for the most part, it works. In fact, it works so well that most of the time you don't even know that it works and may even really believe the exact opposite. But on the whole it works and it works well.
It's just like the spam emails for penis pills or the car warranty phone harassment and all that: If it wasn't responsible for bringing in more dollars than it cost to do, people wouldn't be doing so much of it.
Advertising works.
You may not think it works on you, but it definitely works when applied across people generally. Not entirely unlike the way spam is profitable; it doesn't take many takers to pay for 1,000,000 emails.
As wae put it quite well above (EDIT: I'm referencing his first post, though I agree with the one just above this as well), someone has to pay for the content, though I think right now the internet is awash in "content providers" we'd be better off without, which more or less exist to serve ads rather than using ads to pay for their content.
I don't know which I prefer the idea of: a sane level and tenor of advertising, or some sort of micropayment system. There are so many sites I might visit once or twice ever (and often wish I never had), or a couple times a year, that even a $1 subscription would be prohibitive. Though if I wasn't wading through the "content providers," that minimum could be closer to worthwhile.
I'm going to say I like the idea of trial with ads, and the ability to turn them (and tracking) completely off via a micropayment per article, page, or time frame.
I don't mind my relationship with GRM involving patreon and ads, but very few sites are ever going to mean nearly as much and get that kind of access to me happily.
I just wish they could actually target ads. Show me a product I'm actually interested in and I will probably click on it. Don't show me the same add another 1000 times though. Once or twice is enough.
Unfortunately, for all their boasting about being able to target ads, they really suck at it.
WonkoTheSane (FS) said:Marjorie Suddard said:No, we don't. And ironically, after the magazine bloodbath a couple years ago, we were all pumped to score some first-class, newly unemployed editors for our team. But we never found that newfound availability of quality people; they just went right to work for the manufacturers.
Margie
And because of the way you guys run the show, integrate the ads in an intelligent manner (reading an article on fuel injection and there's a SniperEFI ad right there), I actually browse the ads in your 'zine. I don't know how you quantify that value to your manufacturers, but as a real live consumer, it works for me because it adds value to the articles.
I don't think I can tell you the names of any of the watch manufacturers in C&D, though.
This. Not only do I not mind the ads in the mag, but I'll often check them out because most of the time they're actually relevant to the content and/or my interests. Of course, this is easier to do with a hobby publication than something like news/politics/lifestyle, but I'll take it where I can get it.
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