Digital advertising is such a massive and messy space. There are so many different players involved at all ends of the advertising stack. But, advertising does have the potential to be effective.
One stigma that I definitely subscribed to in the past was how advertising was inherently bad. I thought that ads were ruining the UX of the modern internet and that they weren’t actually providing value to me as a consumer.
But recently I’ve started to think about some very positive a experiences I have had. Usually they are for different reasons, but as I’m thinking about them I can break it down into 3 separate categories.
Relevance
This one may seem somewhat obvious, but ads that are more relevant to me are way more enjoyable to at. What helped me realize this was comparing ads at both ends of the relevance spectrum.
The greatest example of high relevance advertising is Google Search ads. I was in the market to buy some new shirts to upgrade my personal style, particularly looking for some henleys. I had heard of one brand that seemed really nice, but it also was on the more expensive side. Simply searching in Google for what I was looking for gave me 4 or 5 different options for other brands, all of which I could have seen myself making a purchase on. Yes, I did basically tell Google exactly what I was in the market for, but this was an experience that benefitted me, Google, and the advertisers.
On the other hand, I rarely ever have a good experience with Google AdSense ads. And honestly, I think this is a pretty common experience. I’m going to use AdSense in other examples, but from a relevance perspective it’s really not great. Google tailors the ads that they serve to the users first. Google might claim that they consider how the ad fits in with the website that it’s being served on. However, I can think of countless times where the ad that I got served was completely irrelevant to me and also often completely unrelated to the site I’m on. Good ads are relevant to both the platform it’s served on and the user it’s being served to.
Integration
There’s also a spectrum for how well an ad is integrated with the platform it’s being served on.
An example of great integration is sponsored listings on Amazon. When searching for a product on Amazon, the top 4 product listings are promoted, meaning that the sellers paid extra money to have their products be listed highest in the search results. This is a great experience for the user, as even though the listings are technically forms of advertisements, they look and feel native to Amazon. By “native”, I mean that the UI/UX of the ad looks unique to the publishers of the ad. The point is here that I really don’t mind these ads, and I would guess others don’t either, because they integrate super cleanly with the rest of Amazon.
Most AdSense ads are the complete opposite of this. The ad formats are super invasive with only a small number of ad format options to choose from. To be absolutely clear, AdSense ads integrate terribly with the sites that they are put on. In fact, they are rendered using iFrames, which are literally separate html pages embedded into the original website’s html. Because these ads integrate so poorly with the sites that they’re on, serving these ads comes with the direct cost of a poorer UX. This is such an unfortunate tradeoff to make.
Brand Equity
Brand equity refers to the value and the strength of the brand that is serving the ad. One way to think about this is to consider how the value of the same advertisement changes based on the platform it’s being served on.
One of the most valuable brands in the world right now is Mr. Beast. Mr. Beast has cultivated one of the largest followings in the world and is consistently associated with positive, fun content. Most importantly, he’s developed a strong relationship with his audience. Therefore, if Mr. Beast tells his followers to consider buying something, a large percentage of his followers will listen, simply because of the brand that he’s developed. His brand gives him a lot of power over his audience, so the value of an advertisement on his platform is high.
Think also of luxury brands like Gucci or Louis Vuitton. Without the brands, the products really aren’t that much better than the average (sometimes even worse). But as soon as the Gucci brand gets slapped on the product, the product becomes more valuable. This works the same way with advertising. If a great brand advertises the product, the product is more valuable.