Ads Based on Past Searches & Web Visits: Creepy or Relevant?

by Nalts on July 14, 2009

Shuman Ghosemajumder, business product manager for trust and safety at Google, explains how searches and site visits can alter the ads you see (see video below). Folks, as a marketer and consumer, I love this. It’s less waste for the marketer and more relevant to the customer.

Of course some find it creepy, but I find the name Ghosemajumder far more terrifying. In fact just typing it makes me think of a goose that has returned as a zombie, and can dive off buildings and pound me down several layers of the stratosphere but only after sucking away what’s left of my brain. I’ll bet Shuman got made fun of at school, and now takes secret solice in knowing that he’s at Google and his classmates are at some dying dot-bomb or unemployed financial advisors.

Youtube ad settings

YouTube now has the ability to opt out of these ads (Google ad preferences), but I hope people don’t. They’ll make Google and YouTube creators better money, and they’re less annoying than ads for something stupid that we’d never buy. Even better, you can tell Google what interests you, and get even more relevant ads. I’m looking forward to the ads for digital cameras, percocet and poop.

Did you know that if you search a specific term (travel) and visit a travel site, the ads that you see on certain sites for a hotel aren’t coincidence. Advertisers have found that you’re far more likely to purchase if you’ve started to enroll on a site (say, airline) and that if you abandoned a purchase than an ad with an offer/discount is highly likely to get you back. It’s called site retargeting, and it sometimes confronts you with a mirror into your soul. Oh dear, why all the ads about male-pattern baldness?

Hey- I’d rather see a Wawa ad on my YouTube video than a stupid text ad for “learn Japanese via audio tapes.” I’m SO sure I’m going to learn another language at my ripe age. Not even if a zombie ghost bird made me.

zombie goose

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