The Benefits of Relevant Advertising
A better digital experience with more relevant ads
Advertising can be a valuable source of information for you about the products you buy. Not only can it help you discover new services you might not know about; it can also help you getter a better deal on the types of products you already use.
When inferences about your interests are used to help select the ads you see online, the ads you receive become more useful. You get more relevant information about the products and services that may appeal to you. For example, if you’re an a ski enthusiast who reads blogs about the latest gear and snow conditions in the Pacific Northwest, you’re more likely to get ads for ski packages than Caribbean cruises. And if you’re doing online research for a big purchase - for example, a new family car with a good safety rating—you’ll get more ads for minivans and fewer ads for sports cars. Getting the right ads at the right time not only can save you time and money, but helps you avoid seeing ads that just aren’t relevant to your needs.
Relevant ads help support the free and innovative content and services you enjoy
Advertising is the lifeblood of the content and services that you use online. In 2015, ads generated an estimated $50 billion dollars in revenue to help support the developers and content providers who bring you the sites and apps that you love. Thanks to advertising revenue, in the past 15 years you’ve gained access to an incredible variety of new and useful tools: engaging online content; maps and weather services; video and music services; social networks; and time-saving apps.
When ads are more relevant, there’s a better connection between advertisers and Internet users, which generates more value for everyone. More relevant ads get more clicks from users, and advertisers pay more for these ads to the content and services providers who show them. This in turn means more revenue to support content and services and providers so they can continue to operate without charging their users. Ads that incorporate information about their users’ interests are a particularly important revenue source to smaller sites that cater to specialty interests, like hobbies and cooking recipes. Relevant ads help ensure that you as a user have diverse choices for Internet content, on your computer and on your mobile device.
More importantly, users overwhelmingly prefer using ad-supported services to paying for subscriptions. DAA polls in 2013 and 2014 found that- 92% of Americans think free content like news, weather and blogs is important to the overall value of the Internet
- 75% prefer ad supported content to paying for ad-free content
- Americans prefer free, ad-supported mobile apps to those that cost money, and value mobile ads that are relevant to their interests
How is information about your interests gathered and used to make ads more relevant?
Interest-based advertising tries to make the ads you see more relevant through the use of information about the the types of sites you visit or the apps you use. Information about users with similar interests is used so that ads can be better targeted to that particular audience. The DAA’s main site provides information about the mechanics of interest-based advertising. Here also are a few videos that can help you better understand how it works:- IAB UK on The Evolution of Online Advertising
- Google on How Cookies Work
What If I Don’t Want this Type of Advertising?
The DAA program is designed to make it simpler for you to control this type of advertising by companies across industry. Simply click on the YourAdChoices Icon to get control, or use the DAA Choice Tools.