Google's Smart Advertising Leads to More Clicks

The New York Times has a story discussing the sophisticated technique that allows for the spot-on advertisements Google serves up on pages across the internet. From the article: "Hidden behind its simple white pages, Google has already created what it says is one of the most sophisticated artificial intelligence systems ever built. In a fraction of a second, it can evaluate millions of variables about its users and advertisers, correlate them with its potential database of billions of ads and deliver the message to which each user is most likely to respond. Because of this technology, users click ads 50 percent to 100 percent more often on Google than they do on Yahoo, Mr. Noto estimates, and that is a powerful driver of Google's growth and profits. 'Because the ads are more relevant," he said, "they create a better return for advertisers, which causes them to spend more money, which gives Google better margins.' (Yahoo is working on its own technology to narrow that gap.)"

Comments

I don't want tailored ads

[Crouty]

In a fraction of a second, it can evaluate millions of variables about its users and advertisers, correlate them with its potential database of billions of ads and deliver the message to which each user is most likely to respond.

Evaluate this! I blacklist googlesyndication flat out, reject cookies from google and forge my referrer and user-agent. Google has nothing of interest to me, except search results.

Re:I don't want tailored ads

[kertong]

It's funny that even 2 years ago, people were complaining about intrusive and resource wasting flash/pop-up adverts all over a page. People said "I wouldn't mind the ads so much if they were at least relevant and more discreet, can't some company do this? How come nobody can figure out that more relevant/less intrusive ads are more likely to get clicked on?".

So now Google comes along and meets you halfway, with relevant (for the most part) ads, that are tucked away in corners with text only.

And now, the same people are screaming about privacy rights, google's "monopoly" and evil public shareholder interests, and now you guys are using google's resources, infrastructure and all their hard work by ignoring cookies and blockings ads.

Way to take and not even give back something that would not have taken more than a second of your time anyway!

Re:I advertise on both

[Jeffrey Baker]

Surely you must have meant that Yahoo's price per click is 10 cents, not ten dollars.

The value Yahoo provides is that you can just buy your way to the top. If you sell socks and you want to pay $1/click to get the top search result for transmission fluid, go right ahead. Google won't allow you to do that. On Google you can bid as much as you like but your irrelevant ad will never be shown. Yahoo on the other hand will happily take your money. Hence, Yahoo is for spammers.

Re:More relevant ads == more clicks?

[Heembo]

Important comment. My gal is a massage therapist, and I've been tweaking her site for 3 years. (On our first date I was like, ok you can give me your ftp address, username and password and I will take it from here.) I also set her up with a Google Adword campaign. Over the last year several of her competitors in the area have joined in the Adword frey since it is so effective to generate business. We have also been paying more and more for Adwords lately ...

Seems that her competitors are clicking on her AdWord links to up her cost. Then I started clicking on HER competitors links to show THEM who they are messing with. (I got in trouble from my gal - she said it was bad Karma). And then the war begins, clicks flying everywhere...

One night, I met one of her main competitors at a party who admitted to this evil click practice - he was drunk off his arce ad told me at great length in great detail how he tuned his site to be at the top of google for our search category. 2 months later my gal was on top (and the evil clicks have only increased)....

It really is a war out there - and to the winner goes the spoils! The massage therapist with the smartest geek boyfriend wins!