Google's premium ad network for professional publishers is AdX which is run via the google ad manager product and has been on a CPM basis for over a decade. Only small sites are on adsense which pays CPC.
The net change here is probably almost nothing, just the smaller sites that never use google ad manager will see the change but any publisher of note will have been operating with this for as long as they can remember.
With click through rates continuing to decrease it's likely they needed to make this change to keep the long tail sites happy and generating some revenue, they would back out the CPC to an effective CPM anyway.
Me:13+ years in digital publishing and advertising.
Me thinks that this is related to the youtube change. Before only ads that were clicked on counted in earning revenue for Google and YouTube. With this change every inpression is worth that much more.
> Before only ads that were clicked on counted in earning revenue for Google
This certainly wasn’t true 10 years ago. I’d have low traffic pages go without a click but still earn some cents in revenue that day running Adsense (effective CPM would be a rough baseline of ~ 1/10th what a page with clicks that day would earn).
> As a general market trend, why are click through rates decreasing?
Because the advertising industry has structurally educated users to try their hardest to ignore the ads, resulting in every more obnoxious ads, which are then even more forcefully ignored. And that in turn gave rise to adblockers, which are now more or less a requirement if you don't want to lose your sanity while browsing the web.
> which are now more or less a requirement if you don't want to lose your sanity while browsing the web
For a long time I wondered why people said this. I don't use ad blockers and didn't feel it was that bad.
Then 2 things made me understand. First, I pay for YouTube. If you don't and don't block their ads, they seriously test your patience as you browse. I tried it for less than an hour before I couldn't take it anymore.
The second was looking for torrents and hacks (it was for a legitimate and unambiguously legal purpose too, no gray area, but long story!). Those sites are literally impossible to use without ad blockers. Same thing for tools related to diagnosing PC issues. It's all ads over ads over scams and trying to get you to install some adware as you navigate the site trying to install the actually legitimate tools.
I very rarely do either of those things (YouTube without subscription, and navigating the "gray" web), so I never realized just how fucking awful it can get.
Hell, I'm a YouTube Premium subscriber and I still have an ad-skipper for all of the in-video promotions. It's not quite as bad as direct YouTube ads have gotten but it's still a noticeable change in itself.
There seem to be some logical considerations that make the growth of advertising self destructive for advertisers. The big one is that the more ads one sees, the less likely they become to interact with any given ad. There will also likely be an increased ability of users to ignore the ads they do see. As advertisers see returns from advertising decrease, the costs for advertising will gradually trend downwards. This will enable even more advertisers to start advertising.
It's almost like a sort of reverse network effect. The bigger you get, the less desirable your product becomes. And the advertising industry's getting quite large.
Also there are more "branding" ads which are placed just to get the company's logo in your face and don't necessarily need a click to do their job.
If I want to advertise my new Windex(tm) flavored Mountain Dew[1] then all I need is people to see it. They're not likely to buy it from a click, but I want them to remember it next time they are at the grocery store, and I'll pay to shove it in their browser.
I'd also like to see a source for that claim. Been working in digital advertising for 10 years, so I'd be seriously interested. We've changed so much in our advertising over the years I wouldn't be able to tell whether that trend really exists.
I’ve been to low or no tipping countries like France and Brazil and the service is incredibly bad. Coming back to the states is a breath of fresh quality service air.
I only need what 3 to 5 interactions in whole process.
1. Bring me to table (or let me find it myself)
2. Take my order (food and drink)
3. Bring my food/drinks.
4. Allow me to pay...
Could add one or two in between, but I don't see any reason why there should be need for anything beyond these basics.
I think this relates to America's NIMBYism: In the places where there is enough density to support this stuff, the sorting from insufficient housing has made too many rich residents that are not sufficiently price sensitive.
If we had abundant housing and thus poorer residents on average (in a relative sense), we would already have these labor-saving amenities.
The fact that cities are both more efficient and more expensive demonstrates just how fucked up the economics of all this stuff has gotten.
The service is what it is because the restaurants haven't offloaded paying the staff directly onto the customer. A restaurant owner in the US doesn't care if 1, 25, or 50 servers are on duty. They pay almost nothing for them to be there. A french restaurant is staffed just like a retail store. Just enough staff to provide minimal to adequate coverage and nothing more. Because the owner eats the cost not the server.
Then there are countries like Canada, where economic pressures on both business and consumers (nearly all imposed by government) have resulted in a situation where restaurant service is atrocious, yet hefty tipping (15% or more these days) is still expected.
Many Canadians just can't afford to visit restaurants to begin with these days.
Lately, though, even those with the financial means to not care too much about the cost are avoiding restaurants because it's such a miserable experience overall.
The portion sizes are typically quite small compared to the cost. Even restaurants that used to offer generous portions now give less and less.
Many of the servers are low-skilled, low-cost foreigners who lack basic language/communication abilities. Even just placing an order can became an ordeal, with mistakes and misunderstandings being far too common.
The kitchen staff don't seem particularly skilled, either. At lower-end and even mid-tier restaurants, they seem to just be reheating frozen meals most of the time.
After what's often a rather negative dining experience, it's common to be prompted for a tip of 18%, 20%, 25%, or even more when paying.
Even some fast food restaurants, including ones at mall food courts, and take-out pizza joints now have tip jars, or prompt for large tips when paying.
I'm not sure if the Canadian restaurant industry can be saved at this point.
More and more people I know are learning how to cook at home, and even if it takes more time and effort to do, the cost is significantly less than going to a restaurant, and the experience can be far better in pretty much every way.
Service quality in most countries is completely fine -- just different depending on the service culture of the country. You're probably just used to how they do it in the States (which isn't immune to lousy service in anyone's bravest fantasy).
I grew up in Cornish. Most of us knew. Our plumber was his plumber etc etc. he was left alone, there’s a lot of interesting art in the community to see, his house not being one of them.
The locals may have left him alone, but let's say 1% of the US population read the book and 1% of them decided to go have a look at him. That's still a person a day for 100 years.
The congestion downtown is outrageous. The honking from cars sitting in stopped traffic is noise pollution to a degree most people will never experience. Broome street from 3pm until 7pm is a nightmare. Endless honking and road rage. It’s a detriment to the neighborhood and the traffic cops are constantly getting verbally berated for traffic that is not their fault they’re just trying to keep the cross streets open.
I would love to see this price increased further + actual fines levied for mindless honking in stopped traffic.
As a tourist in NYC a few years ago, the honking was fascinating. Usually, you honk to get someone’s attention. Not in NYC. Thousands of people honking for literally no reason. Why does this affliction affect so many people? I wonder if by honking, people are subconsciously creating an association between honking and moving even though there’s no relationship?
Same same. Also when not biking bootcamp classes get me to the same place of only thinking about the workout / excercises at hand. 50 min - 90 min feels like the sweet spot in terms of time.
