this post was submitted on 29 Sep 2023
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Advertising only has as much value to the advertiser as it can get in modified consumer behavior.
If I only have $100/month in truly discretionary income, all the advertising in the world is only fighting for that $100. Realistically, though, we're not all susceptible to the same advertising influences, which is why ad personalization exists. But personalize it all you want and you're still, at most, getting a few percent of my monthly budget to shift towards what you want me to buy.
That means that advertising is only really worth it for whales. The type of people who might buy hundreds of dollars of goods or services through clicking on ads on Instagram, who have that combination of a huge amount of discretionary income and are fickle enough that they might impulse buy big ticket items.
It literally just dawned on me that some people intentionally click on ads. That's such an outlandish idea, it feels like fiction.
Clickthrough rates are one thing, but plenty of ads don't rely on the ad being in the actual chain of purchase. Ads for small stuff like movies, beverages, snacks, etc., or big stuff like cars, furniture, etc., try to get consumers to buy those things outside of the medium that the ad is being presented.
Plus native advertising when you're looking for a specific purchase can sometimes factor in. Someone might pay more for a particular hotel room to get more prominent placement in results, and I'm not going to intentionally ignore that sponsored placement when choosing between a bunch of hotels. Maybe the ad didn't actually make a difference (in theory my purchase decision would've considered that hotel anyway, and if it's the best for my needs then they would've gotten my business without the ad), but I've definitely purchased sponsored results when searching for a product that I already intend to buy.
And if it counts as an ad, paid referral links from recommendation websites I trust are an easy way to "support" an outlet that I use.
I'm not disagreeing with your point, but it's funny; if a result is "sponsored", my first thought is "what is wrong with it? Is it crap?".