Why don't users want to see adverts they might be interested in?

http://ux.stackexchange.com/questions/23247/why-dont-users-want-to-see-adverts-relating-to-products-services-they-might-be

by bussetta • 14 years ago

24 35 14 years ago

ux.stackexchange.com

theoutlander• 14 years ago

Embracing targeted ads requires a mind shift that the per-Facebook generation will not be able to conceive. Most people worried about targeted ads are merely riding the ill-fated privacy bandwagon without weighing the pros and cons of such a system. The future generations will prefer targeted ads.

digitalengineer2• 14 years ago

I think not. The TARGET case in Forbes ("How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did") suggests it is best if targeted ads are surrounded by random ones to stop people from creeping out. More here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-targe...

mibbitier• 14 years ago

Where's the evidence to suggest they don't want to? A few privacy nuts on sites like stackexchange/HN/Reddit?

jasonkester• 14 years ago

My only real complaint with those ads that follow you around the internet is that they're nearly always trying to sell you something you already own.

I bought one of those GoPro cameras that you mount on your surfboard a while back, and was punished with six months of nonstop ads telling me how awesome my life would be if only I'd purchase a GoPro camera. It was annoying to the point where I actually dropped down that little menu in the hope that it had an option for "OK, I bought it already. Please stop now."

It's the same problem with any recommendation engine. Amazon/Netflix/Lovefilm are constantly recommending things I already own, since my buying history shows they're related. "Hey, I notice you bought Series 2 through 8 of 24! You should totally check out Series 1 of 24!"

Thanks. Now stop.

robinjfisher• 14 years ago

Agreed. At the moment, I'm frequently seeing ads for Chargify (already a customer) and Indochino (I buy suits infrequently and have in fact just bought from them).

My main issue with Amazon is it recommending items connected to presents I bought for other people. My brother is a keen photographer so I have purchased memory cards etc. from Amazon but I now keep receiving recommendations for lenses/cases.

jrabone• 14 years ago

You can say "Don't use this purchase for recommendations" and "Not interested / already own it" on Amazon. It's clearly not well-exposed, given the number of people making your complaint.

Tyrannosaurs2• 14 years ago

You can say to Amazon don't use this for recommendations for this sort of situation. It's under "Improve my recommendations".

pbhjpbhj• 14 years ago

>an option for "OK, I bought it already. Please stop now." //

That would be incredibly useful info for the advertising network - you'd be able to chose to advertise to people who already own a particular product. That must be high value (for sellers, advert networks) and probably provides good targetting for those who find that a benefit.

Tyrannosaurs2• 14 years ago

I like Amazon's "you bought a SatNav, perhaps you'd be interested in these other 8 SatNavs"...

Possibly the answer is that the algorithms aren't close to good enough. That "might be interested in" isn't good enough.

smcl• 14 years ago

Another one of Amazon's which frustrated me was that after a few years of buying similar items (programming books, computer odds and ends etc) it started recommending reasonable things. Then I put in an order for two children's books for my mother (who teaches young kids), and from that moment on Amazon somehow only recommended kids books to me.

It's never really recovered, however since I bought a blackberry cover a year or so ago it has started recommending other blackberry covers so I guess it's sort of improved.

thaumasiotes• 14 years ago

I remember seeing Amazon's recommendations as I hit the homepage and thinking "wow, those are all exactly the sort of thing I'd want. Their recommendation system is nailing it!" On further inspection, the secret turned out to be... that all of those items had been lifted from my wishlist.

thenomad2• 14 years ago

I've had the same thing of late. I host my websites through WP Engine, and I'm tremendously enthusiastic about them - but nonetheless, Google Adwords keep trying to tell me I'd be better off hosting through this scrappy, enthusiastic startup called WP Engine instead...

(For bonus points - the retargeting often means that Adwords is advertising WP Engine to someone who already uses WP Engine, with the ads displayed on the site that they are in fact hosting on WP Engine.)

corkill• 14 years ago

I think this has more to do with the setup, I'm pretty sure it's possible to add a tracking pixel to their payment page, which will stop paying users from seeing the ads.

I agree that this is the annoying part of it at least for me. Seeing ads for stuff you already bought.

loceng3• 14 years ago

I agree that re-targeting isn't used well.

prof_hobart• 14 years ago

Amazon (at least in the UK) does have the "I already own this" option - along with an "I'm not interested in this" one.

Some of their suggestions are a little odd at times - I've no idea how many different coffee machines they think I might want own - but they are mostly pretty good, and are probably the only place I've ever regularly bought recomendations from.

johnchristopher• 14 years ago

I have the feeling stackexchange-ux isn't the best place to ask this question. There would be a use for a stackexchange-behaviourial/psychology site.

How many psychologists (or marketers with valid psychology knowledge) are going to explore stackexchange-ui ? Not everything that happens on a screen can be explained by a computer engineer, a computer scientist or a coder :)

geoffw8• 14 years ago

"Users don't spend all their time purchasing goods on the internet - often they are doing different and completely unrelated tasks, sometimes at the same time."

Its got to make you ask why the only people who purchase space on a screen are people who are selling goods. How much is a reader worth to someone like NYT? How valuable is a poll answer? I can think of plenty of valuable things people would pay to display there that aren't "ads".

thenomad2• 14 years ago

Theory: because the NYT can get more reader acquisition for its buck via non-advertising means. Spend the money on ads or on content marketing, aka journalism? For a newspaper, that's a pretty simple choice.