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Comment by komali2 | Hacker News Reader

Welp, there it is. As clear cut a case of the dangers of Google basically holding the keys to the internet for the masses as I've ever seen.

How's the ads on Facebook and Instagram doing?

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Awful, honestly. The last set we ran on Facebook cost us $40 per booked appointment...not even break-even for us.

We are working on video ads for pre-roll YouTube, etc., but it takes $ for tools (like cameras) and production. On Google, we learned how to optimize our ads and we were doing really well.

Have you tried advertising on DuckDuckGo? There's not as much traffic, but it could be worth it.

How many people do you know who use DuckDuckGo? How many of them would consider a repair shop instead of doing it themselves?

About as many as I know who would consider repairing their device at all instead of buying a new one.

FWIW, I use DDG, I’d still go to a repair shop rather than try to repair an iPhone personally.

I’m perfectly happy building a PC or messing with something that’s meant to be user-serviceable, or even replacing the stereo in my car, but when it comes to small things that are glued together I’d look at a professional. I can’t even manage to get screen protectors to go on perfectly straight in past experience...

I also use DDG and would use a shop. I used to even repair iPhones for myself and others, but I just don’t have the tools or expertise these days.

I use DDG and would consider going to a repair shop. Used to fix them myself, but stopped around the iPhone 6 era as they became too fiddly to bother.

The last straw was when I knackered a motherboard because I mixed up two screws and severed a vital copper trace. So frustrating.

I would definitely use a shop, there isn't enough time to read/watch up on how to do it myself

I've heard that Bing also works well

Yeah, that sucks. For very occasional purchases like repair FB ads stink because so few of your potential targeted customers need a repair at any moment - you really need search ads to hit on the moment of intent. Could definitely see YT ads doing well if you target repair videos.

Sounds like phones should have cracked-glass (etc.) sensors.

Objectively, Facebook ads have recently gotten _a lot_ worse because they removed most of the targeting abilities. Targeting was always the competitive edge FB had.

(Whether this an overall good or bad thing I leave as an exercise to the reader.)

Wait, why? I thought the whole point of facebook being super invasive was so they could use that data for advertisers

A lot of responses along the lines of “and HOW would Apple have done this?”

Google pays Apple how much every year to remain their search engine of choice? Their corporate relationship isn’t exactly distant.

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