I think as a child I got viruses from one of the ads, you know, the ones would put on the side of the site. We had to call in a guy, to clean parents’ computer. I felt really guilty and never touched those ads again.
So Google’s and Meta’s main business are ads. And recently I felt confused. Do people click on ads? Don’t these ads feel phishy to them?
I’ve clicked retargeting ads a few times, if they’re offering me an abandoned cart coupon (“finish your order at our store and save 10%”). I’ve worked in ad tech in the past, and retargeting ads (ads that show products you’ve previously viewed or expressed an interest in) have extremely high clickthrough rates.
I saw an ad in Instagram reels around a week ago for a Chinese company that makes big LED signs like you see at the front of stores like Safeway or Best Buy or whatever. Not interested in the product, but I was intrigued because the guy in the ad was Chinese but had a Texan accent. Turns out he uses a different accent in each of his ad videos. That was amusing. I did click the ad to see the quality of the product.
Politicians do this too. I will never not laugh at Hillary Clinton doing a southern accent or Putin popping a gasket trying to speak English.
This is the video I saw: https://www.instagram.com/reel/C0gPnVluYL7/ (I swear my comment isn’t an ad lol). I thought that was just the way he talks, but then I watched his other videos and he does so many other accents. They actually seem like decent quality products.
I don’t mind ads that are unique in some way, and not produced by a marketing agency that seems to use the same approach for all their clients (like car ads).