'Shake it off': How one swift click changed my online profile for advertisers

We’re sorry, this feature is currently unavailable. We’re working to restore it. Please try again later.

Advertisement

This was published 4 years ago

Opinion

'Shake it off': How one swift click changed my online profile for advertisers

We have given up plenty of freedoms as we increasingly lean on technology for convenience, connectivity and entertainment but what makes our lives easier can quickly creep us out.

Algorithms have been humming quietly away in the background of our browsers, social media platforms and other apps for years.

Social media uses 'programmatic advertising' to target customers.

Social media uses 'programmatic advertising' to target customers.

They watch our every move and eat our internet cookies and spew out scarily accurate data on our personalities that helps companies predict and influence our buying, browsing, leisure and voting habits.

Some of these privacy tradeoffs have been unnoticeable, some more sinister, and some are even cutting the noise by creating hyper-personal advertising.

But nowadays leaving something in an online store’s shopping basket or, as I recently discovered, clicking on an online ad in a lapse of willpower can lead to an advertising onslaught for weeks or months.

It can infiltrate your feeds in a similar fashion to that person from primary school that you haven’t seen in 15 years but keeps commenting on your life events.

Normally I’m impervious to digital advertising, ironic given my employment, but every now and then a company produces a product unusual enough that I cave and click.

Novelty to nightmare

Last month I was scrolling through Instagram when I came across a semi-interesting ad for a physical social media ‘likes’ counter. It is a complete novelty but I clicked it anyway, nose-laughed with amusement for a brief moment and closed the page.

Advertisement

That split-second of interest caused a cataclysmic shift in my personality profile. Like a Star Trek battle scene, sparks began flying and alarms screeched on the USS Algorithm.

The captain’s deck was frantic with robots running into each other trying to figure out why I clicked that ad. Their conclusion was that I must have really wanted to buy this obscure product.

I had enough emotional build up over the issue I could’ve written a sassy pop song, Taylor Swift style.

Whereas previously I was being served with a steady stream of shoe, wallet and food ads, once I clicked this product my news feeds on Facebook and Instagram were jammed with it.

For the next month, I scrolled past iterations of this ad hundreds of times. The more I saw it, the more I resented it. “Urgh, leave me alone, I need some space,” I thought every time I spotted it. I had enough emotional build up over the issue I could’ve written a sassy pop song, Taylor Swift style.

I’ve worked in the media long enough to know the first click was a leap into the ‘e-commerce funnel’, which is the process of turning a fluke online interest into an eventual customer.

Dr Billy Sung from Curtin University’s School of Marketing described this tactic as ‘programmatic advertising’ and continued service of the same ads as ‘remarketing’.

Despite my annoyance, Dr Sung said remarketing was an extremely effective tool for advertisers.

“Remarketing is a big one because if you click on a fridge or anything in JB HiFi, they actually know exactly what product and brand you clicked on. That shows you’re interested in either that product category or that brand,” he said.

“What happens is Facebook will say, ‘yep, this person with this IP address and this cookie is interested in this, so I will keep serving them the most relevant ad’.”

Loading

Dr Sung said in the digital advertising space where clicks equal cash, relevancy was key and advertisers unashamedly optimise their efforts.

“In a digital space, you’re doing a one-to-one marketing, you know they’re browsing certain things, they have these interests, they have these demographics, and therefore you understand what they are interested in and serve them things he is interested in,” he said.

“The more relevant and effective the advertising platform is, the more people will advertise on it.”

In my case, Dr Sung said that, while it was effective, it was also fallible.

Since my first world problem, all systems have returned to normal on the USS Algorithm and it has reverted back to showing me men’s clothing accessories and high-calorie foods.

Though, like that former primary school mate, I get the eerie feeling it is watching my every move and gearing up for another news feed attack.

Most Viewed in National

Loading