Go back a decade and there were discussions on how the structure of the web was being warped to monetize the ~ 6% of people who actually click on banner ads.
http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2008/02/16/who_clicks_on_a-2.htmlNow we sort of have a similar sort of scenario where the central network operators optimize the entire ecosystem around tricking people to accidentally click on ads on mobile devices, while cloning, buying, or burying any smaller third parties who are a bit too good at it.
Facebook takes action against video clickbait
https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/08/news-feed-fyi-taking-action-against-video-clickbait/Google warns 700 publishers digital ads will be blocked by Chrome update
http://nypost.com/2017/08/10/google-warns-700-publishers-digital-ads-will-be-blocked-by-chrome-update/In the most recent quarter Facebook stated they make 87% of their ad revenue from mobile.
https://investor.fb.com/investor-news/press-release-details/2017/Facebook-Reports-Second-Quarter-2017-Results/default.aspxSnapchat growth has ground to a halt after Facebook copied their features everywhere. Facebook acquired a "privacy and security" app to track the growth rate of competing apps
https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebooks-onavo-gives-social-media-firm-inside-peek-at-rivals-users-1502622003 "Interviews with more than a dozen people familiar with Facebook’s use of Onavo data show in detail how the social-media giant employs it to measure what people do on their phones beyond Facebook’s own suite of apps. That information shapes Facebook’s product and acquisition strategy—furthering its already formidable competitive edge, the people said. Alphabet Inc., through its Google Android operating system for smartphones, and Apple Inc. also have the ability to monitor how rivals’ apps perform on their mobile platforms"
Google is now paying Apple an estimated $3 billion a year to be the default search provider on iOS
https://www.cnbc.com/2017/08/14/google-paying-apple-3-billion-to-remain-default-search--bernstein.htmlBetween iOS and Android that's well over 90% marketshare.
And then there's the auto-play video stuff where a click isn't even required to burn through advertiser budget. The recent fraud there was so bad Google started issuing some (small / partial) refunds
https://www.wsj.com/articles/google-issuing-refunds-to-advertisers-over-fake-traffic-plans-new-safeguard-1503675395 “Today, we can’t disclose the information about third parties,” Mr. Spencer said. “So when we aren’t able to catch invalid traffic before it impacts our advertisers and we’re unable to refund their media spend, it hurts us, even if we’re not responsible.” ... “We need to be very careful about commenting on or discussing specifics about bots or our detection,” Mr. Spencer said. “Often fraudsters will change their approaches and strategies based on our public comments.”
But not before they first updated the AdWords TOS to prevent class action lawsuits.
https://adwords.googleblog.com/2017/08/important-updates-to-adwords-terms-and.html In the U.S., Canada, and most countries in Latin America and Asia, a provision to use arbitration to resolve disputes rather than jury trials or class actions.
Programmatic has been horrible for non-scam publishers. It moves user intent & ad budget away from niche topical sites toward the broad backfill junk inventory like YouTube. And apparently there isn't only fraud by fake publishers to drive down the value of other ads, but even ad buyers have ways to trick Google's ad systems into lowering click prices across the board (maybe they found a way to make real end users look like bots to Google?)
http://searchengineland.com/google-advertisers-blacklisted-exploiting-adsense-driving-cpcs-280475 "ad buyers were able to manipulate Google’s ad auction platform which resulted in this decline for publishers. It led to a decline in ad coverage and a drop in fill-rate, which is why the CPCs dropped along with it. ... The CPCs that were relatively low for publishers over the past few days will not be updated, but going forward, you should see CPCs that do not surprise you."
Of course as the central network operators shift budgets across to their owned & operated websites, they also have to ensure they take more credit than they deserve for any conversions that happen.
https://adexchanger.com/mobile/facebooks-mobile-attribution-model-fair/ "Although most app installs happen almost immediately after an ad click, Facebook reserves the right to claim credit for conversions that happen within 28 days."
There shall be NO RELIGION other than the singularity so don't promote those competing views on YouTube
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2017/aug/1/jordan-b-petersons-youtube-account-locked-during-b/and please leave the YouTube videos auto-playing to scroll through hundreds of ads while you sleep!
