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Comment by BillFranklin | Hacker News Reader

The writer attacks impressions over clicks as more expensive and less worthwhile, but misses entirely that advertising isn't about making you click (few really click), it's about awareness.

The writer also notes that Google is putting ads on lower quality websites, but forgets that their search ads comprise the lions share of their ad revenue. Google.com isn't becoming a lower quality website.

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>", it's about awareness."

I'm curious if this is actually statistically true specifically in regards to google ads which has active user exploration as opposed to tv/radio/magazines which has passive consumption.

To me, the "awareness ads" are campaigns typically created by CocaCola/Pepsi, beer, DeBeers diamonds-are-forever, Viagra-you-should-asky-your-doctor-about-it. The ads typically feature vague and generic "lifestyle" vignettes and will not have a "call toll-free 1-800 to order" at the end. Like you said, it's all about brand awareness. It's also the type of ads that get aired during the NFL SuperBowl.

But many google ads are highly contextual with the active web surfer already and partially in a "sales funnel". Examples would be a search for "plumber" or "computer RAM" which means the customer is primed to buy something now. I read previously that the vast majority of google ad revenue comes from small & medium businesses and not the Fortune 500 giants like CocaCola and Budweiser. Those small & medium business care very much about "click through" rather than just "awareness impressions." (Side note: Looking through the most expensive adwords list[1] seems to bring up business sectors that rely more on click-through-&-buy-now rather than awareness-&-delay-buy-later.)

Hopefully, someone more knowledgeable about these 2 types of ads can confirm which one contributes the most revenue to Google.

[1]http://www.wordstream.com/articles/most-expensive-keywords

I can't confirm anything about revenues, but anecdotally we've noticed as a team over the last couple of years that our Google ads have moved slowly from the more action-oriented ones to awareness campaigns. I have no idea the marketing value behind those sort but I have to think they're doing something, Chevrolet especially seems to crop up a lot, and we aren't a car site of any sort.

It's not just awareness but also constant reminders to buy things that have been left on your shopping cart. One can see such contents not only on sidebars of websites, but also on apps like TrueCaller which are mixing ads more effectively as part of their content.

"It's about awareness" is what you're told when you ask what view-through purchases are. You can dump truck loads of money at awareness.

Yeah I got you, but that's the whole point, awareness increases revenue.

This guy explains it better than me: https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=PotMuZ7uH4k

In no other medium other than online are you expected to immediately purchase or find out more after seeing an ad. For example, look at the ads on the edges of football matches, for big companies the decision to put an ad there is more about the cost of not being there than anything else. You're seeing a similar decision being made with Google search ads, as sites battle for top place on a Google search.

Online ads may not be perfect, but the decisions behind buying ads are more complex than the writer suggests. It's not all going to disappear when someone reveals all in a blog post, give advertisers more credit than that.

There are ways to get close to a true value of viewthru to compare to clicks, especially as you start spending more. Throw a small % of your creatives in your campaigns to a non-profit. See how those banners perform compared against your brand (they use same targeting, remarketing, etc) and you can write off the spend on the NPO banner.

Marketing is about awareness. A subfield of marketing called advertising is about making people buy the product no matter whether they need it.

Aida. Awareness. Interest. Desire. Action.

That's just one theory of marketing, but all of them assume there are multiple states that lead up to action, often a purchase.

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