Hacker News Reader

Comment by GoNB | Hacker News Reader

As someone who has clicked less than maybe 20 Internet/mobile ads in their life, thus clearly not party of the demographic companies target, I wonder what is wrong with my brain if the majority of people click on ads. (And probably spam mail too)

View on HN

Disclosure: I'm a Facebook employee working on something completely unrelated to ads, and I always use AdBlock on my desktop machines, but I will say this for our mobile advertisements: they can be genuinely useful. Just last week, I got an "offer" on my phone, from The Gap, for 25% off my next purchase. Claiming the offer didn't send any of my information to the gap, but it prompted me to shop there for pants when I normally would have gone elsewhere, and I actually ended up buying something. At 25% off, it cost less than or comparable to my normal shopping locations, so it was a win for me, and I bought something from The Gap that I otherwise wouldn't have, so it was a win for the advertiser. A far cry from the bad taste that online advertising usually leaves in my mouth.

That sounds to me like the argument people always provide in favor of targeted advertising. What distinction do you see between desktop and mobile that made the latter more useful for you?

Desktop advertising has never before offered me a discount for having seen the advertisement; it's usually along the lines of "go look at this". By having a more tangible "carrot", if you will, I was much more receptive to the request for attention.

and who didn't buy that portable usb charger from beyond the rack for something like $12? At least ~10 of my peers, me included, bought one! It is, literally, the first time some sort of ads works for me and my friends. I think the way it worked is 2-3 of my close friends bought one, so it started to pop in my feed too, I bought one and it continued to jump to our friends feed.

"beyond the rack" seems like one of those sign up clubs. Do you have to pay a subscription fee with them?

What is a "portable usb charger"? A 12v car adapter or something else? Did it really cost $12? Who makes it? Did you pay for shipping? I'm asking because I'm trying to figure out if your comment is sarcasm or not - to me $12 seems like a lot of money for something that doesn't have a brand name guarantee behind it.

I may just be completely off base, but I'm confused on why this was such a great deal.

Sorry, no it was not sarcasm. It was from nomorerack not beyond the rack. I did not pay for shipping, not sure about the brand, etc...

it's an item equivalent to this one: http://www.ebay.com/itm/141025286801?hlp=false&var=

not sure if same brand or not, it was tagged at ~$40 on nomorerack, with the special deal at $12.

it works well and I'm really happy with it :)

The counterpoint to that would be that many brands would prefer to not use discounting as an advertisement strategy.

I can see how mobile offers at Facebook can be beneficial, but it's not totally clear how that gets extended out to advertisements without discounting.

I use their mobile web site because the app automatically slurps up my contact list.

When I scroll down on my news feed I have to be careful to avoid starting the swipe on an ad, because just touching an ad is a click. Touching a legit news feed item doesn't affect my swipe like that.

The cynic in me wonders how many others are caught out like this.

I would guess a good amount :)

Before the interweb, advertising was primarily about impressions. After the interweb, impressions are actually still valuable, even if the advertising is not obviously priced that way.

A small minority of people ever click on ads. Of course, a small minority of Americans watch American Idol, too:)

> if the majority of people click on ads

The majority of people do not click on ads.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com