The Good Kinds

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There are three kinds of ads.

Heat seeking missiles [BAD]

Data aggregators purchase your data, analyse your location, purchase history, browsing history, app usage, and more, then create a complex profile of you with AI assisted inference. They guess, (and nearly always accurately) your income, hobbies, education, age, gender, and most worryingly, your most likely future purchasing behaviours. Then they sell this data to advertising networks.

These shadow profiles are so incredibly accurate that they’ve given rise to the “my phone is listening to me” myth.

This hyper-focused advertising system comes at the cost of a significant erosion of personal privacy, and maybe even a decline in autonomy.

Thirsty, invasive, manipulative, relentless, these targeted ads are as effective as they are immoral.

As a consumer, you can eliminate 90% of the problem by installing ad blockers on your devices1, using a browser with tracking protections, and avoiding loyalty programs.

As a business, you can attract a privacy-aware customer base by avoiding targeted advertising. These customers will be more loyal, more likely to recommend, and typically have more expendable income.2 Plus, your business won’t be at risk from the fickle nature of search and advertising algorithms.

Shotguns [GOOD]

Display advertising has a much broader spread. It’s a “spray and pray” approach. You can choose the time and location of your ad, targeting the type of audience who is likely to be there. It’s contextual targeting.

A TV spot during a football game is likely to find sports fans. An ad-read3 on the Accident Tech Podcast is likely to be heard by Apple customers. If you’re lucky, you’ll find a direct line to your target audience. More likely you’ll find a crossover (sports fans like beer, Apple users like audio equipment), which can help introduce your product to new markets.

Shotgun ads respect the privacy of their target. Although they’re often digital, they don’t include tracking cookies or attempt any retargeting.

They’re cheaper per view than the invasive alternative, and just as effective when it comes to reach, discovery, and brand awareness. If your goal is immediate conversion, targeted advertising performs better. However, some studies show that this advantage is diminishing due to new privacy laws, anti-tracking technologies, ad fatigue, and an improved variety in the opportunities for contextual targeting.

Handshakes [GREAT]

Seth Godin writes about Permission Marketing.

Permission marketing is the privilege (not the right) of delivering anticipated, personal and relevant messages to people who actually want to get them.

This kind of ad respects your customer’s autonomy. It generates the stickiest customers. Your 1,000 true fans. This is relationship building as much as it is advertising.

If your product has an email newsletter (opt-in, of course), a social media account (that customers can choose to follow), a blog, or a 1:1 sales pitch call, these are all examples of handshake ads. You ask permission, and your target market trusts you with their attention.

  1. I recommend 1Blocker on Mac and iOS, where it also removes most in-app ads. Look into Vinegar for YouTube, or the Play app does a great job there too. ↩︎

  2. There’s research that shows a correlation between higher income and a greater awareness of privacy laws in the US. Oh, and it turns out that younger crowds are more privacy conscious, too! ↩︎

  3. Podcast advertising comes in two flavours: manual and dynamic ad insertion. The former is your bog-standard shotgun approach, but the latter uses the listeners IP address, which can be combined with other data known about that IP. It’s not quite as insipid as most targeted ads, but still falls in that territory. ↩︎