“Facebook advertising spend is expected to reach $25.56 billion by next year“
As a young kid, if I saw something – inevitably a dinosaur toy – that I wanted I would ask my Mum if I could get it. Invariably, she would say ‘just leave it for a few days and if you continue thinking about it and want it just as bad, then you can buy it.’ And that’s a purchasing strategy I have used ever since.
Of late though, such a strategy is no longer viable. With the access of information and data nets that collect our information, ideas and movements whenever we’re in the vicinity of an electronic device it has become impossible to not think about an item I’ve seen online, or merely mentioned.
Told a friend about an upcoming concert? Siri caught that.
The banners around my Google Chrome page are littered with adverts of things Google knows I want, and as a result, I can no longer decide organically whether the item is what I covet or not. With companies employing pay per click advertising, SEO marketing and countless other methods to generate innumerable touch-points with their brand, the online ecosystem is George Orwell’s worst nightmare – only the eyes of Big Brother have been replaced with the speakers that adorn the stage of the concert promo shot that I can’t escape.
Digital marketing is statistically as effective as you might have thought, too. For every $1 spent on google ads businesses make twice that in revenue. Don’t feel too bad about your habitual online shopping of late either, because 64% of consumers will click on Google ads when looking to shop online.
Each person is served around 1,700 banner ads monthly, so how in the world are we supposed to ‘forget’ about an item after just a couple of days?
An Amateur's Perspective 