Why I Won't Do Advertising
Ads. Google Ads. Meta Ads. Those banners, clicks, sponsors.
I grew up in an internet where you don't click banners because you might get a virus. Where finding something to download meant going to websites that had five traps and four fake buttons and something very inappropriate and you had to know which was the right one and not click anything random because it was dangerous.
Now, sure. Browsing is safer because browsers are "safer". There's security, you have an in-built defender on your device. It's still spammy though. All these ads are distracting. And my attention is the most valuable currency I have. More than money. I'm annoyed when there's an ad that 'catches my attention' because guess what? My attention was already somewhere else. It's a disruption. Not in a fun way.
And I know it's necessary. How else would a new business find their audience? How else does an existing business acquire new customers? Ads. Including digital. Especially digital. And digital ads have made advertising more accessible to smaller businesses too. You can set aside a budget and reach specific demographics and anyone in the world. In the old days of print and television and billboard advertising, it was more expensive. You couldn't do that. Now, you can find your customers where they are. On the internet.
I understand the need for it.
But I'm still never going to click an ad and make a purchase when I'm on New Yorker to read a piece on shopping and not actually shop because that's not what I intended to do. Not every activity online is about me making a purchase. But online advertising wants it to be. It desperately wants each online session to result in a conversion. You could be doing anything else, but you're more useful when you're a customer. When you spend money. And we'll make you want to spend money. By showing you targeted ads. And more ads. And some more. All the time. Until being online to you is synonymous to being advertised to. You have no value unless you result in revenue. We'd rather you didn't exist.
That's why Google is so aggressive with blocking ad-blockers on Chrome. YouTube. Spotify. Meta - let's not go there, the company that tracks you even if you don't have an account.
So. I'll never get into advertising, or performance marketing, or whatever the next version of this is going to be. I like my opted-in channels. Email, specifically. Where you still get control over whether or not you want to get those emails and buy something when you want to.
So, I work in marketing and I don't do all types of marketing. Especially paid marketing, which are these ads. And I never will.
And I know this is an alienating opinion in this industry. I work within agencies that have those departments. And that's fine. Agencies where those teams are much larger. All agencies, really. And I understand why it exists. But it's never going to be what I do.
This is the first post I'm making after creating this blog in January, and writing my why this blog exists post. It's been nine months. Almost ten. So, doing took some time. This isn't even what I think a first post should be, but it's a post and it is what I believe in.