So in order to protect my digital privacy, I should register myself at some alliance's website. It just doesn't make sense.
Either this whole internet advertising thing turns out to be a bubble after all — in that case; let it pop, see if we can't figure out something better. If using ad-blockers and tracker-busters helps achieve that goal; good.
Or we end up with an internet where all users settle somewhere on the privacy spectrum in an uneasy equilibrium. On the one extreme of this spectrum we have those who accept ads served them through exclusive IOS or Android apps and unprotected browsers, and on the other extreme those who refuse to play along and use ad-blockers and other privacy tools, and simply shun services that require you to opt-in to data harvesting (e.g., Facebook and websites that refuse to show content when they detect an ad-blocker).
I think we may currently have the latter — I wonder how stable that situation is.
> So in order to protect my digital privacy, I should register myself at some alliance's website. It just doesn't make sense.
Of course it doesn't make sense, but if you have millions from a billion dollar pool to spent on lobbyist and all kinds of dirtbags that are in power, all of sudden rules that have sound people scratch their head, are norm.
> Either this whole internet advertising thing turns out to be a bubble after all
It is a bubble, indeed! The truth is that not enough people (businesses) have tried to find out on their own, so you have always fresh blood coming in!
I still get approached few times a month by a friend who own small business. The conversation goes something like this: "Wow Facebook has billion people in their database, and I can narrow them to age and interest. Oh I see 25 million people are my target audience wow if I get 1% of them purchasing my product, I will be filthy rich! And I'm talking about worst case scenario!" Then I go on into long explanation how people don't go to facebook to buy products but to watch silly cat movies their friends upload, I'm never being listened to. Until said friend drop in $150 as a test and get 80 clicks that got him one purchase for $20 worth of product. That's it. So this friend never advertise with Facebook again. But don't worry! There is probably half a billion others waiting to open the floods of business and riches for themselves by unlocking the doors to facebook advertising treasury chest.
Agencies and "those that know what they are doing" are not much better. They will tell you they help you advertise with good ROI, but in reality its the same as every advertising agency promising you first page of google. uhm, no. They all won't fit on the first page. Eventually once you burn $1k or few thousands with agency you realize there is a way to make some money but you would have to have budget in millions to break through with your product. So while Facebook is awesome for Coke and Pepsi to drop million buck before superbawl to fight for your mouth, the average person will usually lose money.
> Then I go on into long explanation how people don't go to facebook to buy products but to watch silly cat movies their friends upload, I'm never being listened to
Maybe you're not being listened to because what you're saying flies in the face of all known evidence in an entire discipline called "online marketing", and it also screams "Facebook holdout+privacy nerd rant", which most business owners will politely smile at but know not to take a marketing lecture from.
Mind sharing some of that evidence? Having worked for a few online ad targeting companies previously with large advertisers and publishers, I gotta say, most of the data we saw coming from marketing campaigns were weak at best. Most of the conversations were around spending campaign budgets fully (which basically meant reducing the quality of targeting to a broad fishing net), and furthermore ROI tended to be measured against some insane advertiser goal not directly linked to conversions (sometimes this was charged via CPC or CPM, which advertisers supposedly obtained from their real conversion metrics).
Also, if you're curious (though I can't find any links right now) you should look into the insane things that happen in brand advertising. I recall running a campaign with a very large brand that would pay us for showing users a YouTube video of their product. Their wasn't even a link to the product. They essentially were paying us for "influence".
It takes time, money and permission to convert new customers. Small business usually doesn't have enough time or money, Facebook users don't give permission unless they've searched for something specific. Small Biz is better off using Facebook for free to engage interested existing customers.
I agree it's a fallacy that a ROI is earned just by laser targeting, it's more complex, in which case FB ads tend to be overvalued
Either this whole internet advertising thing turns out to be a bubble after all — in that case; let it pop, see if we can't figure out something better. If using ad-blockers and tracker-busters helps achieve that goal; good.
Or we end up with an internet where all users settle somewhere on the privacy spectrum in an uneasy equilibrium. On the one extreme of this spectrum we have those who accept ads served them through exclusive IOS or Android apps and unprotected browsers, and on the other extreme those who refuse to play along and use ad-blockers and other privacy tools, and simply shun services that require you to opt-in to data harvesting (e.g., Facebook and websites that refuse to show content when they detect an ad-blocker).
I think we may currently have the latter — I wonder how stable that situation is.