how and why are ads so effective?
ads are increasing by an alarming amount and being stuffed literally eveywhere and in everything?!
and i dont know a single person that watches them or ever purchased anything because of them, not even the moest gullible people thet where scamed with all sorts of bullshit
In: 185
People look for social proof when it comes to buying something. And if you’re buying something new, you’ll probably buy something you’ve heard of, with the logic that something well-known is probably good.
Alas, that’s not true anymore, because ads hack into that belief that something known is more trustworthy than something unknown.
>and i dont know a single person that watches them or ever purchased anything because of them
You live in an information bubble, as does everyone. Say, I don’t know anyone who voted for Trump, and yet. There’s a large number of people who are cognitively different from you, and *it is them* who consume ads.
You know the movie *Idiocracy*? Not the best piece of cinematography, but you might want to watch it.
I don’t know who falls for spam or door to door sales but I’ve seen ads on TV for a new product I didn’t know existed and was interested in it.
Like a new item at Taco Bell or something. If I see a commercial about a new kind of taco that looks good I’ll go there at some point when I may not have otherwise.
First of all, thinking you are not affected by advertising is naive. Advertising is a 300 Billion business and companies are not going to spend that money unless they know the money is well spent. Especially in today’s world of internet ads, they know exactly which ads are creating more sales and by how much.
Secondly, advertising is not aimed at people who are not interested in buying a product. Instead, it is aimed at people who are considering buying but they aren’t sure, or aren’t sure exactly which brand to buy from. Imagine you are on a road trip and you decide to stop of lunch at a fast food joint. You see a McDonald’s billboard and you decide to stop there instead of the burger king you didn’t know was at a little further down the road.
The important things to understand are:
1. Ads are not targeting people who have no interest in their products
2. Ads are just giving you an extra little “nudge” in one direction instead of the other
3. Ads operate on your emotions rather than rationally so it’s impossible for you to know if you bought something because of an ad. You only know that you want it.
Only a very small percentage of people that view ads are actually expected to bite on it. That’s why ads are increasing, not because they think a lot of people are affected by them, but because they know that maybe 3% of people who view it will actually engage with the ad. So preferably you want that ad to be seen by as many people as possible.
For somebody that ad is never going to affect, however, it becomes incredibly annoying and off putting. but for the marketer, that doesn’t really matter–chances you were actually going to buy that product in the first place are most likely astronomically low–they lost nothing by annoying you.
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