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If you already know you want a VW Golf, the ad isn't very useful for the advertiser.

Yes it is. If there are 4 cars dealers in my state who have what I am looking for, they can all serve ads to me, then I compare and buy the best car with the best payment option.

I see. I assumed the advertiser was VW, but as you point out, there are others who'd still be interested.

I may be a minority, but that's not how I buy stuff if I know what I want to buy. If I know what I want to buy, then I research the item using Google.

I don't click on ads often, but when I do, it's usually because something caught my attention that I wasn't directly searching for.

The one exception is that I occasionally try to "trigger" ads that give me a discount once I know exactly what I want.

That's probably when the ad is the most useful, because they can get you to buy it sooner. It's a pretty good deal for VW if a few cents' worth of internet ads can cause you to make a $20k purchase a month sooner.

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