←back to thread

SponsorBlock – skip sponsor segments on YouTube

(sponsor.ajay.app)
661 points anotherhue | 1 comments | 12 Aug 24 09:10 UTC | HN request time: 0.207s | source
Show context
voidUpdate ◴[14 Aug 24 07:09 UTC] No.41243350[source]▶
I still don't understand a lot of youtube advertising. Like for me, if I'm being advertised something, I instinctively don't trust it, because they're having to pay people to say good things about it rather than people who have used it telling me it's a good thing. And there are still so many sponsorships from places like BetterHelp, which has been known to be a scam for a while now, and Raid Shadow Legends, which is just a crappy mobile game that is about as "mobile game" as you can get. The only reason I use onshape is because a friend recommended it to me, and I was very skeptical about it initially
replies(13): >>41243362 #>>41243405 #>>41243454 #>>41243484 #>>41243665 #>>41243739 #>>41244350 #>>41244374 #>>41245408 #>>41248980 #>>41249812 #>>41250146 #>>41252361 #
dkarras ◴[14 Aug 24 07:27 UTC] No.41243454[source]▶
you're not the target. advertisements work. the people managing ads are very meticulous about their spend vs. return. if you are seeing an ad of something for any noticeable duration of time, that means it works. by that I mean they get positive return from showing the world their ad. if it generates negative returns, it will be pulled pretty quickly. they are humans just like you and me, we don't like losing money.

also one should always be skeptical about the extent they believe they are not influenced by ads. that runs pretty deep. you say you instinctively don't trust it. but when the time comes to buy something, you won't automatically steer yourself towards a product that you have never heard before just because you have not seen an ad for it. having some names in your mind, even them showing up when you do research creates influence.

replies(8): >>41243666 #>>41243746 #>>41243782 #>>41244099 #>>41244345 #>>41246077 #>>41248142 #>>41255850 #
1. tormeh ◴[14 Aug 24 09:48 UTC] No.41244345[source]▶
They are very much not meticulous about ROI. The thing to understand about the ad industry is that it's incredibly adversarial. Companies need ads to raise brand awareness and make people aware of new products. So far, so well-aligned. From there on it goes downwards. A company's marketing department is in an adversarial relationship with the rest of the company, aiming to increase the ad budget at all costs. The ad agency often just gets a pot of money from the department, and instructions to spend it all, no matter how unproductive. Because if the marketing department doesn't spend their budget, it might shrink. ROI is often not a consideration at all. And if the marketing department actually do care about ROI, then the ad agency certainly doesn't. Then you have the websites themselves, with their clickfarms and general fraud, and the ad exchanges that empower them.

The whole business is teeming with waste and fraud, but it's a necessary evil so it stays.