this post was submitted on 14 Nov 2025
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There is actually an argument that advertisers like Google are abusing micro targeting to extract advertising revenue from clients while, at least in some cases, delivering few actual new customers.
Here's the process.
So if Google's algorithm thinks you are already going to buy product A, they show you an ad for product A constantly because it means they'll claim you as an advertising success and get paid extra.
No, I use uBlock origin and I only see online ads when I'm forced to look at someone else's computer.
I literally had bets on whether or not someone would respond exactly as you did, bragging about never seeing ads because of ad blocking.
What did ya win?
Extra jack session today, the literal bet was clearly with themself.
The left hand won this round.
It is like encouragement for the thing you were already likely to do, which is the goal of targeted advertising.
Now if you purchased something, then got the ads afterwards and they counted it retroactively then they would be abusing it. I'm 99% sure they do that.
It's the claim of targeted advertising. The person I saw talking about this actually ran the numbers, comparing two very similar geographic markets. In market A they paid for advertising, but in B they did not.
When comparing market A to market B, market A had a marginal increase in sales for the advertised product vs. market B. However, they were charged for orders of magnitude more conversions than the actual increase in sales.
The idea is that when compared to something like actual click-through purchases, where a user literally clicks on an ad and then buys a product, it's extremely deceptive.
That explains everything!
No doubt their ads are monthly/quarterly purchases. So Google reports the end of month "conversions" when in reality it's ads shown during the month but happened after the sale.
Me: "I am going to the grocery store."
Google: "Groceries, go go go!"
Me: "I've bought groceries."
Google: "Another win!"