I lived in a country where people don’t speak English. There’s a sizable expat community of English speaking workers there. The ad targeting was so useless that I was constantly shown ads in a language I couldn’t understand. This was on an Android phone where everything was set to English. With every single interaction I with any app or web page I was broadcasting the language I know, and yet they couldn’t figure even that absolutely critical detail out.
This targeting was so bad that an old fashioned newspaper ad printed in ink next to a story would have been more effective. At least a publisher is going to put English ads in an English newspaper, German ads in a German newspaper, etc.
If the ad companies can’t even figure out the language(s) that their targets understand, their knowledge of their target must be essentially zero.
when i used apps with targeted ads, amongst generic type of stuff i also used to get two polar opposites of ads:
ah, we see you’re in poland and use english a lot, want to learn english?
ah, we see you’re in poland and use english a lot, we can help you get your immigration papers for legal employment
both at the same time btw. apparently being a polish national who speaks english fluently marked me as some sort of ad-anomaly
the ads also believed that i was a senior? at some point i even got a spam call inviting me to join a study on back pain T–T like bro you’re at least 10 years early, relax
Was ad number 2 about how to get immigration papers as an English-speaking person in Poland? I imagine Poland doesn’t have a lot of immigration from people in English-speaking countries. Especially not from people who haven’t figure out all the legalities necessary to gain employment in Poland.
i mean, the ad was in english so kinda? i never clicked on them so i can’t say for sure
though don’t forget that a person who speaks english doesn’t have to be from an english speaking country. most people who want to travel/live abroad will know at least some english
If the ad companies can’t even figure out the language(s) that their targets understand, their knowledge of their target must be essentially zero.
Sorry but this is the wrong takeaway here. They are so incredibly good at segmenting and profiling their audiences, they just don’t really give a fuck about serving good ads (or any other service for that matter) anymore. Cambridge Analytica anyone?
I lived in a country where people don’t speak English. There’s a sizable expat community of English speaking workers there. The ad targeting was so useless that I was constantly shown ads in a language I couldn’t understand. This was on an Android phone where everything was set to English. With every single interaction I with any app or web page I was broadcasting the language I know, and yet they couldn’t figure even that absolutely critical detail out.
This targeting was so bad that an old fashioned newspaper ad printed in ink next to a story would have been more effective. At least a publisher is going to put English ads in an English newspaper, German ads in a German newspaper, etc.
If the ad companies can’t even figure out the language(s) that their targets understand, their knowledge of their target must be essentially zero.
when i used apps with targeted ads, amongst generic type of stuff i also used to get two polar opposites of ads:
ah, we see you’re in poland and use english a lot, want to learn english?
ah, we see you’re in poland and use english a lot, we can help you get your immigration papers for legal employment
both at the same time btw. apparently being a polish national who speaks english fluently marked me as some sort of ad-anomaly
the ads also believed that i was a senior? at some point i even got a spam call inviting me to join a study on back pain T–T like bro you’re at least 10 years early, relax
Was ad number 2 about how to get immigration papers as an English-speaking person in Poland? I imagine Poland doesn’t have a lot of immigration from people in English-speaking countries. Especially not from people who haven’t figure out all the legalities necessary to gain employment in Poland.
i mean, the ad was in english so kinda? i never clicked on them so i can’t say for sure
though don’t forget that a person who speaks english doesn’t have to be from an english speaking country. most people who want to travel/live abroad will know at least some english
Good point.
Sorry but this is the wrong takeaway here. They are so incredibly good at segmenting and profiling their audiences, they just don’t really give a fuck about serving good ads (or any other service for that matter) anymore. Cambridge Analytica anyone?