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Why Is Google Advertising IE7 to Mac Users?
Relevancy is the key to getting people to click on ads, so it only makes sense
for ad serving services, like Google AdWords, to use any data they can get their
hands on to improve the relevancy of the ads they serve to users.
With that in mind, check out this ad served to me in my Gmail account while
using FireFox on my MacBook Pro:
Upgrading to the new IE 7? Who do they think they're talking to? The ad was
so irrelevant that it got my attention.
The
landing
page for the ad lists the following system requirments:
System requirements:
• Windows XP SP2+
• 64MB RAM
• 12MB disk space
But they're clearly not using those requirements to serve ads.
Google must be able to see which browser and OS I'm using. Why don't they
use that money to serve more relevant ads? And while they're at it, why not
provide that functionality to ALL Google Adwords advertisers. I'm sure there
are many advertisers who could build better click through rates and a better
ROI for their ad campaigns if they could filter their ad serving based on
browser and operating statistics.
For example, this would make it much easier to target geeks, Luddites, or
designers, to name just three unique sub-markets. Why not allow people
selling software for the Mac to target Mac users? Or let the Geek Squad
target pre-XP users? Or let Adobe target people with massively high screen
resolutions?
Better relevancy is better for all parties. Advertisers waste less money.
Consumers find ads more valuable. And Google's best positioned for long-term
ad revenues if they make the market as efficient as possible.
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2. Posted by: Ed Kohler on May 4, 2007 9:40 PM:
Good point, Sri. However, in this case, the emails I visited before seeing this as - so presumably triggering the ad - were completely unrelated to tech of any sort. They involved a discussion with a Toronto-based reporter about completely non-tech related matters. Frankly, I can't figure out which content in my Gmail account would have triggered this particular ad, which makes me believe that they're throwing this out as a run-of-site ad when they can't find something more relevant to show. They could still improve upon that by taking other factors, such as OS, into consideration.
3. Posted by: Sri Todi on May 5, 2007 2:50 AM:
There are only 2 ways in which Ads can be targeted properly
By means of asking permission and getting to understand your interests directly from you ( as in the case of Yahoo! Originally)
Spying on your browsing habits using cookies (DoubleClick Style)
I truly don't believe in AdWords working, specially like in my Blog, just for a test I installed AdSence and see it really doesn't work.
I strongly believe that only cookies with a combination of Javascripts can provide ads that are targeted.
4. Posted by: Ed Kohler on May 5, 2007 10:01 AM:
Sri, based on Google's revenue, I get the feeling that AdSense works pretty well.
Surveying and cookies are certainly two ways, but not the only two ways to target ads, as you suggest.
There are a lot of non-intrusive ways ads could be further targeted. For example, Google allows advertisers to target based on language preferences and location (country, state, city). I'm suggesting extending this list of options to include browsing platform choices.
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1. Posted by: Sri Todi on May 4, 2007 7:42 PM:
The ad technique for GMail is to get the AdWords from the content of your email. If you are talking about IE7 and PC in your email, then the technique seems to be good, no matter what OS browser you are using.
This ad can be considered if the email you contained a FedEx shipment details.
Finally, I am a big critic of Google too, but want to be reasonable.