Are These Ads Stocking Me?

Welcome back everyone!  This week, we will be talking about target marketing with Ads and the type of Ads that come up on personal webpages.  To start, let me give a few definitions so we are all on the same page.  First target marketing, as some might know, is when a company chooses a group of people they think will want their product and then use Ads to market to that group of people.  The group can be anything from women, ages 25 to 50 to families with more than two children.  To find their target market, companies will use Ad serving networks.  Ad serving networks are the people who collect information on everyone, things like what brands you buy the most to the next most check pages when you leave Facebook.  Gathering this information helps the Ad serving networks to know who is in certain target markets and the best places to put Ads for those people to see.  For example, when I was looking to purchase a car and was looking information up about the cars I had in mind on the brand’s websites, I was followed by those cars everywhere.  If I went to a clothing website, there would be Ads for the cars to the side of the screen.  When I got on Facebook, Ads for the cars would be in the news feed. I could not get away from them.  Ads are regulated by the IAB or the Interactive Advertising Bureau and they have guidelines for both Ads seen on desktops and Ads see on mobile devices.  For those who are interested about those guidelines, you can find the desktop guidelines here and the mobile guidelines here.  For this post, I looked at a few different sites to see what Ads might come up and how they differ between the desktop and my phone.  When I was on the desktop looking at Amazon.com, I saw two slideshow type Ads, one for Progressive and one for Comcast Business.  However, when looking at Amazon.com from my phone I did not see any Ads.  From the desktop, Walmart.com had an AAA slideshow type Ad; but on my phone, there was a static AIG Direct Ad.  On my brother’s suggestion, I looked at UltimateGuitar.com and found that the desktop showed two slideshow type Ads for Overstock.com; but on my phone, I saw two static Ads for Chewy.com.  I was a little disappointed in my search so I will be referencing some Ads I have also seen on Facebook.  The biggest different I noticed between the desktop sites and my phone sites were the different in the brands advertised.  However, I chalk this one up to the fact that the desktop is a shared computer and my phone is only my personal searches.  The other difference I noticed was the type of Ads.  All the Ads I saw via the desktop were slideshow type Ads.  Where the all the ones I saw via my phone were static.  I think there is a difference between the desktop content and the phone content because of the type of device it is and how advanced the site is.  Not to say that Amazon and Walmart are not advanced sites, but maybe they do not want to put in the effort of have active Ads on their mobile sites and save that technology for the desktop users.   Now, the place I see the most advertisements is Facebook.  They have everything from static Ads to video Ads to slideshow type Ads.  As I very rarely access Facebook from anything but my phone, I know the Ads on that device the best.  With a few scrolls in my news feed and I see a video Ad for Sustain, Dick’s Sporting Goods, a movie called Winchester, and BodyBoss.  These Ads are considered Filmstrips by IAB Mobile Rising Stars and are seen more and more on Facebook Ads.  I think that the Filmstrips and the slideshows type Ads are the best way to grab customers attention while they are online.  It is so easy to glance over and scroll by static Ads.  It is the movement and not the Ad itself that really captures the attention.  We, as humans, are naturally curious and when something moves we want to check it out and know what it is; I think this is why the Filmstrip Ads work the best.  Do you agree?  Are there other types of Ads that catch your attention more?  Let me know if the comments below.  Until next time, TTFN, ta ta for now!

IAB. (2018). Mobile Rising Stars Ad Units. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from https://www.iab.com/guidelines/mobile-rising-stars-ad-units/

IAB. (July 2017). IAB New Standard Ad Unit Portfolio. Retrieved January 30, 2018, from https://www.iab.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/08/IABNewAdPortfolio_FINAL_2017.pdf