Ask HN: How are FB and GOOG growing if hardly anyone intentionally clicks on ads - sharemywin
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sebst
Hmm, first of all: A big proportion of people don't recognize Ads are ads[0].
It gets even worse when you ask people to distinguish between "paid content
marketing" and "journalism" – I've seen a study about it, but I cannot find it
at the moment.

Second, I believe that there is no such user who does never intentionally
click on ads. If I need to find a supplier or something I want to spend money
on, I sometimes really find ads useful.

On the other hand, some big spenders seem to realize that online marketing is
not as effective as Google and Facebook claim it is: Procter & Gamble
cancelled their 100 million dollar budget[1].

[0]: [https://econsultancy.com/blog/64808-36-of-people-still-
don-t...](https://econsultancy.com/blog/64808-36-of-people-still-don-t-
realise-that-google-adwords-are-ads)

[1]: [https://www.wsj.com/articles/p-g-cuts-more-
than-100-million-...](https://www.wsj.com/articles/p-g-cuts-more-
than-100-million-in-largely-ineffective-digital-ads-1501191104)

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sharemywin
I'm not saying there isn't an ad market. But, where is the growth coming from.
Broadband is pretty close to saturated. Do people really search more than they
used to? Are people spending that much more time online? is Cost per click
going up that fast? is view to click ration going up?

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NetStrikeForce
Because people intentionally click on ads. What data have you seen to say
people don't click intentionally on ads?

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kasey_junk
The advertisers with deep pockets are fairly less interested in clicks (your
conversion rate on an F150 banner ad isn't important to Ford). They are
interested in higher order impacts like brand awareness/preference. They have
other ways to measure those things that they've developed over many/many years
of not being able to track as well as now.

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Lon7
That simply isn't true. Billions of people are intentionally clicking on
Facebook and Google ads. Why do you think they aren't?

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tomascot
I guess he thinks everyone can identify ads, plus he probably doesn't click on
ads on purpouse.

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whitepoplar
It's just a hunch and I can't prove it, but I suspect that a very sizable
percentage of the ad market is fraudulent, or otherwise "scammy and opaque."
More so than people realize. Anyone who has ever run ad campaigns knows how
fishy they can be: false reporting of stats, clicks that never seem to
materialize, etc. And my experience is with the "non-shady" one--Google!

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muzani
Advertisers don't care how many clicks they get. They care about how many
purchases. FB/Goog both allow them to track ad efficiency down to sales.

If I spend $3000 on marketing, I don't care so much on how many scam clicks it
gets but rather that I make at least $3030 profit at the end of the campaign.

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angryasian
I think you're underestimating some of the ad products. Video ads are very
lucrative. Facebook auto play's ads and their measurement is usually how long
it actually plays. Facebook's native advertising, is very effective when
targeted properly. Most people don't realize its an ad.

For google Impression based advertising is still huge, and growing especially
on mobile apps/games. Youtube's and mobile video ads again, like facebook is
very lucrative. Most of the time these video ads can't even be skipped. Also
context based search is still huge. Most people will click on the first link
of a search regardless if its an ad or not.

So its really less to do with click and more about views.

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siquick
To add to this, as an advertiser you generally get charged after the user
views 3 seconds of the video.

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Rjevski
Does it actually matter if someone clicks on them? As long as the advertisers
keep pouring money into getting those ads in front of your eyes, FB and Google
make money. Whether you click or not is irrelevant.

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nozzlegear
I'm a fairly tech-savvy person, and even I click on ads when I see something I
want to buy. These days those ads are all on Facebook (in my ad-clicking
experience).

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fiatjaf
If you have a Facebook account, then...

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gesman
I click on ad once a week. Sometime Ad is a closest (less mouse to move) link
to where i want to go anyway.

