
Ask HN: Why don't we place ads based on the content? - klunger
Why don&#x27;t we place ads based on the content, instead of the user, the way print does? Given all the concerns about user privacy with targeted advertising in general, as well as the fickle revenue from this [1], it seems like it should at least be considered.<p>I admit I am coming from a place of ignorance about this topic and am just curious. This seems like an obvious thing, at least in some cases, so I don&#x27;t understand why it isn&#x27;t even considered.<p>[1] https:&#x2F;&#x2F;news.ycombinator.com&#x2F;item?id=22856324
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jeanloutre
Two main reasons, in my view :

\- It's way more profitable for the advertising platforms (that remains to be
seen for the advertisers, see point 2) because you multiply/combine the number
of different audiences infinitely or so => more campaigns, more budget...

\- The user engagement metrics (clicks on your ads, return on invest, etc) are
waaaay sexier with targeting advertising. It's pretty logical, since people
you adress your content with are much likely to be at least a bit interested.

Privacy and user's anger might effectively have an impact, but we can also
suppose advertising platforms will adapt anyway.

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jamil7
This is exactly what DuckDuckGo does and what Google did prior to targeted
tracking and advertising. It's basically the old school web advertising model.
I'm guessing it's not as popular anymore because it's not as profitable.

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ffumarola
By most measures, both for ad platforms and advertisers (and subsequently
users), audience-targeted ads outperform context-targeted ads. You could go
back to a world of only context-targeted ads, but publishers would need to
make their business models work with lower RPMs, advertisers with lower ROAS,
and users with less relevant ads (to them).

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rchaud
The ads you see are determined by a combination of factors:

1\. The bid price

2\. The clickthrough rate of the ad (must pass a minimum % to be displayed)

3\. The keywords used and the audiences the ad buyer has targeted

Ultimately, it comes down the audience, and not the content. Ad buyers want
their ads to be seen by "people who like X", and not "people who are currently
viewing a video/web page about X".

There isn't really a way to target an ad for a specific NYTimes page for
instance, because they cover a variety of topics, and multiple stories are
published each day. To be more precise, there are ways, but the economics of
that probably wouldn't be in favour of the ad seller.

It is possible to do this for YT channels, as they tend to be more focused;
MKBHD stuff will always be tech or gadget-focused for example.

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thesmileyone
We still do, it's called native advertising and it's a HUGE market.

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mehta_rohan
Well they do

[https://www.silverpush.co/mirrors/](https://www.silverpush.co/mirrors/)

