Do you hate Ads?
I do not hate Ads. I actually like most of them since they are interesting, funny and innovative. I recently visited the World of Coca-Cola. There is one spot called Perfect Pauses Theater. It shows the best of Coca-Cola TV advertising throughout the years and across the globe. I was sitting there for over half an hour to finish watching all the Coca-Cola commercials. I am not the only person who enjoyed watching the commercials. The theater was packed with people from all over the world who were enjoying watching the commercials.
But why we keep on hearing about complains about Ads? The issue I feel about the Ads is that I keep on seeing the same Ads over and over again. No matter it is display ads on web pages or TV commercials, they do not change quite often, and they show up at the same time in the same sequence over and over again. Even the ads in Gmail, they show the same ad for the same email over and over again. For my experience, if I see the ad once and I am not interested, I will not become interested in it if I see it three more times the same day. I will get bored of it and even feel the ad is annoying.
It makes me think of another similar experience – listening to the same songs in my playlist. When I first created the playlist and added all the new songs I downloaded, I really like listening to it. But after a while, I am bored of listening to the same songs in the same sequence over and over again. That is when the Shuffle function comes in. I am not sure if Apple is the first to invent the Shuffle function. When I got my first iPod, I really do not understand why I need the Shuffle. But after I got bored of listening to the same songs in the same sequence all the time, I feel the Shuffle is a genius design. When I used the Shuffle, I enjoyed listen to the same playlist for a much longer time, even they are still the same songs.
From this experience, I am wondering if there will be something that can help Shuffle the Ads. It should be similar to the Shuffle in iPod, just put all the Ads in a playlist and show them randomly. And if the users are not converted in certain period for the same list, just create another list with new Ads. You can also Shuffle the playlists or do a Shuffle All for all the Ads in all the playlists.
I feel the current algorithm is Smart enough to show Ads based on my search key words. But 99.99 % of the time the Ads are not showing at the right timing. Why would I be interested buying something that I just bought? Why would I download the same App that I just downloaded? Why would I apply for the same credit card that I already had?
But on the other hand, my buying habit, life style and interests will not change significantly over certain period of time. For that reason, the Ads are still sort of relevant to me. If I searched and bought something online, I might buy the same or similar thing with the same or similar brand in three months.
In summary, I think the Ads should be not only relevant, but also be shown at the right timing. Since the right timing is hard to predict, shuffle the Ads will be helpful.