WTF is up with front page adds?

"Shift24" (the-nope)
02/22/2019 at 10:05 • Filed to: kinja'd

Not that they arent already phishy ads but they have gotten weirder.

Yesterday I say an ad about F150 prices and it showed an Euro or Aussie Nissan Frontier

Then today

I didn’t know Buick was getting a TT.

Edit: Found the other ad

DISCUSSION (16)

The Ghost of Oppo > Shift24
02/22/2019 at 10:21

I got that one with the Orange F150 (is that a Nissan?) one yesterday, but t he caption was “New Make Ford Truck”

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > Shift24
02/22/2019 at 10:21

Either broken Ad creating not, or some one bought the ad space just to troll.

benjrblant > Shift24
02/22/2019 at 10:22

Just a guess, but I wouldn’t be surprised if univision or whomever owns gizmodo now just sells out their ad space to some brokerage that finds anyone willing to pay for the space.

Spanfeller is a twat > Shift24
02/22/2019 at 10:33

As much as I like that my foreign kinja is clean, I wonder how a company whose journalists are so worried about latino representation doesn't make ads for their latin american users.

CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever > Shift24
02/22/2019 at 10:45

I get these as well, they seem like kinda clickbaity Outbr ai n type ads.

facw > benjrblant
02/22/2019 at 10:56

I mean this is how every site operates. They sell their ad spaces to an ad exchange/network who then auction them off (often in real time, which is actually quite impressive), either to an advertiser, or to another exchange/network who repeats the process. The only time sites sell directly to advertisers is when you see a single brand/product/movie/etc. completely take over a site, with all the ad slots occupied (and often some addition ad “feature”), since for that level of involvement it makes sense to cut out the middleman and work directly. Usually it’s not worth the effort of trying to manually determine where ads should run, especially as ads are usually targeted to specific users.

The fact Kinja has low quality ads does reflect on the site though, it means its not thought highly of by brands (or at least their advertising algorithms ), allowing low value ads to run. If I had to guess, this is because of the comparatively high risk of having your ads appear next to content that is not “safe” (which is broader than NSFW).

benjrblant > facw
02/22/2019 at 10:57

Sorry?

facw > benjrblant
02/22/2019 at 11:02

I don’t think you have anything to apologize for? Just trying to provide some background. Sorry if you felt like it was an attack.

benjrblant > facw
02/22/2019 at 11:03

no harm, no foul. i have no idea how this stuff works so it was just a guess.

Shift24 > HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles
02/22/2019 at 11:10

Now that would be funny. Just absolutely have fake ads. If they are bad enough, you might get clicks lol

Shift24 > CarsofFortLangley - Oppo Forever
02/22/2019 at 11:13

D efinitely click bait but its not even trying click bait. Feel like it would 100% give my computer a virus

HFV has no HFV. But somehow has 2 motorcycles > The Ghost of Oppo
02/22/2019 at 11:13

Not even Ford Make New Truck

Shift24 > The Ghost of Oppo
02/22/2019 at 11:13

Looks like a Nissan logo but could be wrong

Shift24 > facw
02/22/2019 at 11:22

Ouch so basically all of the Gawker media doesn't bring enough traffic to get the good ads?

facw > Shift24
02/22/2019 at 11:37

They bring plenty of traffic (amount of traffic isn’t really that important anyway, since each ad slot is basically being sold individually, there are really economies of scale). And actually it’s probably actually a decent demographic for advertisers to reach. But brands don’t like their products appearing places where it may damage the brand. So there might be a general concern about angering conservative purchasers by appearing on sites that a pretty liberal. There if you are a car company, you might be wary about advertising on Jalopnik and having your ad run next to negative coverage. If you are a financial instit ution, you may not want to run against a HamNo piece on Splinter saying you should be first against the wall. Pretty much no one wants to appear next to a NSFW piece (I’m not sure if it’s still true, but I believe kinja used to disable ads on post tagged NSFW). In any event, it’s hard to verify that these things aren’t happening, so ad companies have to paint with a pretty broad brush, which can result on low quality ads even for pieces where it would be safe for a more prominent brand to buy an ad.

In any event, the basic idea is that whatever ads you see, it’s probably because that company was willing to pay the most to be there, so if you see low value scam type ads, it’s probably because more reputable businesses were scared off for some reason, which will be concerns about the site, or in rarer cases, concerns about you.

Shift24 > facw
02/22/2019 at 13:53

Never thought about it that way but that makes total sense. And I wonder with Jalopnik’s (and maybe others) policy of not with holding information at a manufacturer’s request is another reason