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Using Google retargeting ads, less than 5% of desktop traffic goes on to click anywhere on my website. And it's worse for mobile than on desktops.

Source: I setup Google Analytics event tracking to trigger on every page click.

Edit: change 10% to 5%. And it's actually only 2.5% over the past 14 days.

Edit2: and that was from ~200 clicks over 14 days.

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> I setup Google Analytics event tracking to trigger on every page click.

Thank you, I now feel as good as I'll ever feel about using uBO.

I think tracking page clicks is completely different to invasive data profiling. Anything that could theoretically be tracked server-side (like a link click) is fair game. The only reason it's done client side is easy implementation.

As someone who never uses any blockers, what's the benefit to you?

I imagine you have some role in building the internet since you're on HN.

As far as I'm aware, by not blocking ads I am experiencing the internet that the majority of people also experience.

And I think that's how I can better understand the people I build things for.

Maybe if more tech workers took off their tin-foil ad-blocking hats then the ad industry, and the whole internet, would be better off.

Edit: I wonder how many developers that work for ad companies also use ad blockers. Probably a lot?

I used to work for an ad company, ad blockers really dont stop the tracking. They just make the internet usable :)

Can you better explain this usability?

When a site is littered with ads, the content probably sucks, too.

Could the ads make the internet more usable? For example, they help evaluate the content before reading it and leading one to find better quality content sooner.

Every time I use a browser without noscript and ublock origin I feel inundated with all sorts of marketing material. Its distracting.

I used to simply switch to a CLI browser to google for things but these days its hit or miss as javascript is so heavily used.

Videos... auto run videos need to be abolished as well.

> I imagine you have some role in building the internet since you're on HN.

I do. I sit in a tiny corner where we just build websites without all that JS and tracking bullshit. (That's not to say that I never use JS, I just use it very sparingly.)

It's just a different philosophy. I don't need to know how many people exactly listen to my podcast. It's much more rewarding to me when I meet random people and they say "Oh you're that guy? I loved your last episode." That's 100 times more awesome than seeing a download counter increment.

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