Ask HN: How are FB and GOOG growing if hardly anyone intentionally clicks on ads

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...

[1]: https://www.wsj.com/articles/p-g-cuts-more-than-100-million-...

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

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.

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

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!

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.

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.

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).

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