Serves me right

My banner ads on HTMF are now for CougarLife.com and “We Don’t Want Young Men. We Want You.”

And now Russian Dating for Men.

How do these banner ads work exactly. I am now getting an ad for a Christian dating site with a very attractive young man smiling at me.

A combination of what is on this page, combined with sites you’ve visited that profile you.

In this case it’s probably because of the pages you’ve visited on this site.

Most ads are targeted. Some aren’t – the general ads for cars, etc.

I’m getting ads for dash cams.

[quote=“MiG”]A combination of what is on this page, combined with sites you’ve visited that profile you.

In this case it’s probably because of the pages you’ve visited on this site.

Most ads are targeted. Some aren’t – the general ads for cars, etc.

I’m getting ads for dash cams.[/quote]

I kind of get that. Except the cougarlife.com and the Russian site popped up after we had been discussing the Christy Clark comment. Are they clever enough to be context specific. eg. were people who were discussing an actual cougar sighting up at the hospital targeted with cougarlife.

I can’t think of anything that I did that would get cougarlife on the radar for me other than starting that thread.

And how long will they stay with me now that they figure I am in the market? (Which by the way I am not.) And what’s with the Christian dating? Given that they have now profiled me is as someone looking for an older woman, does this site figure I am a sinner and needs saving or just a lonely old man who is desperate for any relationship?

I usually don’t pay too much attention to the ads but facebook seems to add a specific ad after I have made a comment on something in my status update. I am not bothered by any of this. Just curious.

It gets a bit complex, but here’s some of the stuff that happens:

First, Google comes and checks out the page, to see if it can figure out what it’s about. That’s why you often see Google and other search engines visiting HTMF.

Second, advertisers ‘target’ sites that are about certain keywords. The advertiser, using google.com/adwords, says to Google: “Show this ad about fishing charters in Prince Rupert whenever someone searches for ‘fishing charters in prince rupert’ or something similar.”

Advertisers can also target individual sites, networks of sites, or they can target countries, states, provinces, cities, etc. For example: “Show this ad about fishing charters in Prince Rupert whenever someone searches for ‘fishing charters in prince rupert’ or something similar … if the user is located in Alberta or BC.”

So far, no big deal, because it’s targeting the site, not the user.

But then it gets weird. If you’re a big advertiser, you have more options. You can start targeting users based on unique factors. For example, if a user has been visiting a lot of fishing sites, you can request that your ad for fishing charters in Prince Rupert show up even when that user isn’t on a fishing forum.

All of this is done by bidding, auction style. An advertiser can buy ‘impressions’ – show this ad X times, and I’ll pay Google X dollars. Or an advertiser can pay per click – I’ll give Google X dollars for every time someone clicks the ad. The higher the advertiser bids, the more likely it will be shown. There’s other stuff in the algorithm as well, for example, Google tends to prefer ads that get more results. The advertisers all bid, and the highest bidder gets his ad shown. Google splits the revenue with the site owner.

In the case of Cougar and Christian Singles, I think Google has probably figured you’re visiting sites about cougars and bible studies. And you can bet that advertiser pays a lot of money for the ad to be shown to that particular combination of interests.

You can figure out if it’s google tracking you, or the pages you’re visiting, by simply clearing all your cookies (or using your browser in privacy mode).

For example, here’s what the front page of HTMF looks like for me:

and here’s what it looks like with no cookies:

The first is probably targetting me – I’ve been looking at computer components recently. Especially boxing-day sales:

The second one, though, is probably location-based. The moving company bid to have its ad shown in places likely to have a need for a moving company :smile:

So try that – use your browser’s ‘privacy mode’ or try deleting all your cookies and see if you are served different ads. If so, then problem solved. If not, then it’s HTMF that’s being targeted as a place where single Christians who like Cougars hang out.

More info from Google: google.com/policies/privacy/ads/

Visit here: google.com/settings/ads/onweb/ to see what Google thinks should be served to you.

Here’s what Google is targeting me with:


You can opt-out, or edit the tracking at that site, as well as here: google.com/ads/preferences/html/opt-out.html.

If you don’t have a Google account, you can download a browser plugin that will permanently opt you out of tracking.

You can also use an ad-blocker. But they don’t always block the tracking, they just block the display of the actual ads. And they take away revenue from small sites like HTMF. The server and other costs associated with this site are paid for by the ads.

How’s that for an answer ? :smile:

[quote=“MiG”]

How’s that for an answer ? :smile:[/quote]

Always a teacher. Thanks.

So take a look here: google.com/settings/ads/onweb/ and let us know what Google thinks are your interests!

[quote=“MiG”]
How’s that for an answer ? :smile:[/quote]

Very cool stuff, man! :smile:

Interesting stuff. I am assuming this is based on computer use and might indicate more than one person if the computer is shared. This is what I got and the computer is 99% used by me.

[quote]Arts & Entertainment - Humour
Arts & Entertainment - Movies
Beauty & Fitness - Fitness - Fitness Equipment & Accessories
Jobs & Education - Jobs - Job Listings
News
Online Communities
Online Communities - Forum & Chat Providers
Reference - General Reference - Biographies & Quotations
Shopping - Gifts & Special Event Items - Flowers
World Localities - North America - Canada - British Columbia - Vancouver[/quote]

Is this based on google searches only or do they know what sites I go to using bookmarks. For example, I go to tsn and yahoo sports most days but they have not pegged me as a sports fan. I rarely “google” a sports story.

I recently googled florists in Saskatchewan, but I actually buy stuff - books, DVDs primarily - from Amazon.

And there is no indication that I have an interest in books. I google book titles far more often than I do movies

I have an obvious interest in education stories but that profile sounds like someone looking for schools or a job which certainly isn’t me.

[quote]Your demographics
Age: 45-54
Gender: Male
Language: English[/quote]

Well the English male are easy enough, but it must have been all that searching for a half marathon training program that has them thinking I am younger than I am.

They get your stuff from sites (like HTMF) that use Google Ads or DoubleClick ads. And from Google searches as well.

Google usually doesn’t know what you buy from Amazon, since Amazon doesn’t have Google ads. I think eBay does, though. They can’t really tell what you buy anyway, just that you visit the sites. Google has no way to get your stuff from sites they have no presence on.

And if your browser has 3rd-party cookies off , then they don’t get anything. That’s the setting for Safari by default.

Here’s my wife’s computer profile:

Hmm… dating & personals, eh, Pam? hehe.

She’s also seeing Christian Mingle ads on HTMF, as well as some custom-kitchen cabinet stuff. And now a VPN ad: “Pro VPN - Hide my Ass. Virtually reside in another country easy use government level security!” Probably because of this discussion :smile:

I never did lose my cookies but yesterday I joined a free online course from Yale University and now the banner ads include ones for universities and online courses as well as the dates with Russians.

Now, I am actually paying attention to the ads when before I would have never known what was crawling across the top or along the bottom. Still, it will take something powerful to get me to click on any of them.

You don’t need to click them. Some of them just pay by the ‘impression’ anyway. So much for each thousand displayed, etc. Unfortunately, I don’t get the HTMF ad revenue anymore, but I can tell you it’s higher than it’s ever been.

But here’s a weird twist – In December 2012, the revenue at themainframe.ca beat this site for the first time ever, and I do get that money :smile: Even though it has maybe 20% of the traffic that this place has, its visitors are more targeted. The page on using an iPhone on SpeakOut has generated enough revenue over the past year to actually pay for an unlocked iPhone, for example.

There’s money to be made in targeted writing on the internet. I’m thinking of starting a new tech blog…

AHHH surfing with out seeing any ad’s it’s a awesome thing :smile:

[quote=“MiG”]A combination of what is on this page, combined with sites you’ve visited that profile you.

In this case it’s probably because of the pages you’ve visited on this site.

Most ads are targeted. Some aren’t – the general ads for cars, etc.

I’m getting ads for dash cams.[/quote]

That explains me getting bombarded with extendz ads

What are extendz?

enlarging pills

Can you show me a screenshot of what HTMF’s front page looks like with Untangle’s adblocker on?

I don’t have anything against people using ad-blockers. But they should know that those ads pay for the service they’re consuming. Completely up to you, though.

hows this :smile:

Ah ok, same as Adblock Plus, I guess. Thanks Jase.