Internet Ads

Since I am completely distracted from studying for my last exam, how about a little tidbit.

I could get into how I feel 75% of advertising is a waste of money. Brand advertisement is great (I'm lumping ads for things like movies and say, cereal, since the former might as well be a brand in and of itself, while cereals rely MUCH upon brand recognition, even if a brand is associated with individual cereal products). However, most targeted ads for specific products are fairly pointless...

With that out of the way, targeted ads are only effective if, well, they target correctly and get someone to actual buy something (eg. monetization of the advertising expenditure). This is why we have all of the trackers and privacy controversies regarding "Big Data".

That being said, the algorithms they use to figure out which ads that pop up must be HORRIBLE if you rely on my own experience. Currently, Youtube thinks I am a middle aged woman (Olay and Swiffer ads... based on the fact that I like to watch movie clips and animated shows from my childhood?), Facebook thinks I'm in the Tea Party and am APPLYING for college (why couldn't it just read that I'm... ya know... I college... or on a university network?), while Google is telling me I need help with my resume, probably based on the fact that I've sent my resume via email a billion times. Going to be honest, Facebook finally gave me an ad for a product I didn't know about and DEFINITELY want to buy ($200 replica lightsabers that, yes, you can duel with. The inner geek is going crazy) the other day. But that's A LOT of hit or miss. Excluding going to the movies (which I exclude since I only go to the movies once or twice a year for a movie I was probably going to watch without advertising), a few hundred dollars of ad conversion for me, maybe 5-10 years from now (I have other things on my wish list above lightsabers...), among the probable thousands of dollars of advertising thrown at me a day via TV, Youtube, and social media, is not a good investment for firms.

Yet, maybe I'm just incredibly frugal and am a tough customer. SOMEONE has to be buying to justify huge advertising expenditures. However, I know no one who has bought anything based on a Facebook ad (they used to disappear to most people I've spoken to, though they've remedied that buy sticking them into the news feed). Perhaps this is why going short on FB is the best idea...

The Market

This is really more of a complaint than an analysis. The market REALLY needs to correct and tank a bit so that I can go in on ETFs and some stock picks... because I'm having a REALLY hard time believing that the market isn't overvaluing... pretty much everything!

Also picked LGF correctly at the beginning of the year. #winning