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> Is it really more profitable, or is personalized advertising google’s long con?

Yes, it helps. Contextual ads help me find new customers to market to, hopefully through relevant content that overlaps with my product, but what do I do with all those visitors that stop by and don't convert? Retargeting lets me capture that interest and incrementally improve my media spend - and on tens of millions a year in media spend, this can be significant.

I wish I had better alternative but unfortunately these are the tools we have to work with, and creepy ads that follow you around the internet are going to last until we figure out better ways of spending investor money without feeling like we're burning cash to the Advertising Gods.



I guess it comes down to having less visitors click on an ad means fewer dollars spent. The few who do click are closer to being customers compared to contexual clicks which get more interest but more the browsing type.

It feels like we are wasting so much page space with ineffective ads and too few clickthroughs.


Which is why targeted advertising became so popular because it increases the chances that you will see an ad that is relevant to you.




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