Interest Based Ads, Even as a Consumer, Are a Pain

[WolfLover]

ASA, as I stated in another post, I find these interest based ads to be a real pain in the neck even as a consumer.

I was researching some running shoes for flat feet for my sister a couple of weeks ago. Ever since then, I see image ads for this same shoe on every site I go to that has Google ads on it. We are talking about sites that have NOTHING to do with said running shoes.

When I look at my own sites, I see these same shoe ads and my sites have nothing to do with running shoes.

Ever since these IBA ads have been running, my CTR and eCPM have fallen greatly. I think a big part of that is these IBA's. I know that I have found it very annoying to see those same shoe ads on every site I visit as I do not want to research that any more and I have no need to keep seeing the same thing weeks later. So, I feel that with the same thing happening to my website visitors, they searched for something and are now on my sites searching for something completely different and all they see are the same ads on every site, no matter the subject matter, they become VERY annoyed and ad blind and the fact that these are ADS become more and more obvious each time they visit a site.

Why can't we turn this off on our sites so that visitors to OUR sites get ads that are relevant to our content, not based on a search they did two weeks ago?

I would appreciate a detailed answer about this if you don't mind. Thanks in advance!

[radiofanatic]

I was searching for a seo tool 2 weeks ago and since then I see 2 ads from seomoz and another seo firm.

This is just annoying and I am pretty sure that the CTR drops, not mentioning the visitors experience.

[piatkow]

Having the same problem but with Microsoft. I looked at a house price site to try and value my late mother's house and I now keep getting ads for houses in her district.

It might be of value for 30 minutes or so but a week later it really puts people off.

[johnmoose]

For the above mentioned reasons and (I tested them since January) having a CTR of below 0.5% I switched them off.

[HuskyPup]

Does the "new" ASA exist any more?

[BedSupperclub]

If you think interest-based ads are that annoying and don't want them on your site you may turn them off: with the old interface, just go in 'My Account' then down the page edit 'Interest-based Ads Preference'

[Play_Bach]

@BedSupperclub
Sorry, that only works for you - not your visitors.
[webmasterworld.com...]

[WolfLover]

Does the "new" ASA exist any more?

HuskyPup, I had titled the subject of this post "ASA, Please Reply IBA Ads", but a mod obviously changed it.

ASA replied to the other post entitled "ASA, Please give a definitive answer" late last night, so I immediately made this post hoping to get ASA's attention and to let them know many of us are both consumers and publishers are upset about these IBA's.

I hope ASA will reply and tell us if they will make a change so that we are able to turn off IBA's on OUR websites.

I hope to hear from him or her.

[Play_Bach]

> Does the "new" ASA exist any more?

@HuskyPup - yes. They just replied to this post
[webmasterworld.com...]

[netmeg]

I doubt very much that's going to happen. IBAs are the way the entire advertising industry is going. It's not just Google by a long shot.

I don't like 'em either. I bought some boots in January and that same pair of boots followed me around for two weeks.

HOWEVER, if I'm to believe my new AdSense reports, the IBA ads are paying close to a buck a click, have a CTR that is about 200 times the other types of ads, and an eCPM well into three figures. But that's over a slow period (year to date); it'll be interesting to see what happens when my traffic really builds up over my peak season. Which, coincidentally, gets going this weekend.

[edited by: netmeg at 3:53 pm (utc) on Apr 28, 2011]

[Play_Bach]

@WolfLover

Talk about timing. You beat me to the ASA reply! :-)
While we're at it with ASA requests, I'd like to be able to lose the "more ads" arrows (< >) and have the URL in the Large Rectangle below the text like it used to be. Both of these things as they are now just don't look good and I can't imagine they actually bring in more revenue for Google. Do they? I find it interesting that Google doesn't use these formats on their site (why is that?) It'd be great ASA if the non-premium publishers had the option for these simple changes as well. Thanks.

[edited by: Play_Bach at 4:10 pm (utc) on Apr 28, 2011]

[Leosghost]

Last time this came up was with the previous ASA about 3 years ago ..I finally got them to admit that you cant turn it off ( they had to check with "engineers" during thread" ) and that the wording wasn't clear..IMO as I said at the time probably deliberately so.

<short rant> I've been linking to that thread and stepping into threads on this question constantly over the last 3 years since..and must have linked to explanations of how it actually works at least 4 times in the last 10 days..why does no-one apparently read previous threads even in the same category "adsense" before launching new ones on the same subject !</rant off>

Pushing the, at the time ASA, on that seemed to result in the plex pulling ASA ..and we had none for a long time ..

If you want ASA to stick around for the easy day to day stuff ?

I'd advise not embarrassing them by getting into "policy" which they personally don't decide ..or they may get pulled again.

None of the ASA's IME , nor the adsense reps that everyone complains about actually appear to know much about how it works or even what will incur penalties..witness the ads situation re Panda..adsense say put the maximum..then search doesn't like it ..and everyone says how they were led into adsense heavy sites by adsense teams..the adsense teams probably didn't know any better..I don't think they are very high in the food chain ..unlike Matt was when he posted here as GG..or even Adam appeared to be when he was around.. AWA did n't just point people at Google's support pages either.

They are all to a degree PR, but IMO only Matt gets to decide anything ..and the IBA not being truly opt out for publishers isn't going to change unless Google finds it is not in their interest ..and apparently they don't ..even if it is irritating for us as users and publishers.

[netmeg]

Actually the last ASA didn't get pulled so much as she got transferred somewhere else, and it took 'em a while to find a new one willing to do it. This has to be a pretty thankless job at times.

Google reps in general have to be pretty careful about what they say because of the vast networks of miscreants looking to exploit every loophole. I suspect the AdSense reps more than most. But if you look closely at a lot of the written help files and documentation, a lot of that is purposely obfuscated as well.

I understand why they do it, I just don't agree with the degree to which they do it.

[Leosghost]

I bought some boots in January and that same pair of boots followed me around for two weeks.

Same here but its been near 6 months now for some software I bought ..it comes and goes ..seems to cycle over 30 days..

given that no way am I going to buy it twice ..I can't see the point in it following me around, bring me to

HOWEVER, if I'm to believe my new AdSense reports, the IBA ads are paying close to a buck a click, have a CTR that is about 200 times the other types of ads, and an eCPM well into three figures.

I'm not seeing the same kind of figures for IBA's ( but have no doubt at all that you are ) maybe because we wont click on what we have already bought doesn't mean that some people won't ? and maybe it is very niche specific ..

ie; I won't buy the same niche software twice but if they keep reminding you about shoes that you bought maybe the average shoe buyer can be influenced by the stalking ads into visiting the same shoe site and buying another pair ?

Or maybe only certain kinds of ads work as IBAs but adwords buyers are not being picky enough about seeing if theirs do ? ..this ignores the "branding" image ads of course..which I wish we could..

I really don't want to have to start using adwords to test theories ..but ..the more I think about it ..and the more seeing the way it works from both sides, as you do the more it seems like it might be necessary, just to get the total picture.

Have to see how much they want for what would be my keywords,use some of the credits they keep sending me.

In which case dynamic sites run adsense and that serve content based on referral term in string ..may be better able to capitalise on what would be otherwise non relevant IBAs.

[Play_Bach]

> by the stalking ads

Well put! Certainly feels like that at times. :-)

[Leosghost]

Actually the last ASA didn't get pulled so much as she got transferred somewhere else

Ahh :) that confirms that the last ASA was a "she" ..the writing style always struck me that way ..

Agreed ..If I was working for the plex ..I would not want to be any kind of "A" here or elsewhere..they must have to draw straws to see who loses.

[Leosghost]

But if you look closely at a lot of the written help files and documentation, a lot of that is purposely obfuscated as well.

They always struck me as having been written by the offspring of an unholy mating between lawyers, politicians and brought to term in the surrogate wombs of PR MBAs ..( the latter being hermaphrodite )..and thus able to **** anyone whilst smiling at them .

[buckworks]

I bought some boots in January and that same pair of boots followed me around for two weeks.

IMHO that is a poorly designed campaign. The advertiser should not be showing the same ads to users who have already completed purchases. For those users, follow up with something related but different!

[netmeg]

IMHO that is a poorly designed campaign. The advertiser should not be showing the same ads to users who have already completed purchases. For those users, follow up with something related but different!

Yea, but not terribly surprising. I'd be curious as to the percentage of advertisers using it, let alone who know how to do it correctly (ork ork)

But I don't see it all that often, and in the grand scheme of things, maybe the ones that stick out only do so because they're rare (and usually the case of advertiser goof up) Considering I buy practically everything I use online, if the system were entirely screwed up, I should be seeing a lot more of them than I do.

Yes, the previous ASA was a 'she'.

[jmccormac]

IMHO that is a poorly designed campaign. The advertiser should not be showing the same ads to users who have already completed purchases. For those users, follow up with something related but different!

That's the hardcoded natural stupidity in the "artificial intelligence" of this IBA system. It has no way of knowing if a user has made a purchase offline.

Regards...jmcc

[Atomic]

Despite some issues, IBA's are some of the best performing I see. They have a better CTR of any other ad and pay triple anything else does.

[Sgt_Kickaxe]

IBA = your city + coupon ads this month. Your site demographics may or may not do well with that but it's what you get, it's what everyone is getting!

[netmeg]

Yea, that's why I've been stalked by a giant glazed donut for most of the year.