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11 Comments

Will there be more or fewer ads in our future?

More and more business models get invented, seemingly, every year. Or a startup popularizes some kind of old biz model.

Ads and Adtech still dominate online digital space. And it seems are invading into new areas more and more. I myself in the past 10 years have worked in television, influencer marketing, and newsletter advertising.

I'm noticing more and more ads, in everything. In every space. Beyond banner ads too. Branded content, influencer content, native ads, etc.

It just seems like the future holds more ads in more places, than today.

I want to ask you. I want to see beyond my bubble.

Do you think there will be more ads or less ads in the future?

Is the future ad-less or ad-more?
  1. More Ads
  2. Less Ads
Vote
  1. 1

    I have a different take on this...

    I see ads as a type of payment that sits somewhere in between 'free' and 'paid'. In other words, you're paying with your time and attention.

    Personally, I consume almost all of my content exclusively on YouTube Premium and Netflix which don't have (many) ads. It's an absolute pleasure to be able to trade a little bit of money for less ads.

    That said, I still think most people still prefer to pay with ads. And companies will always need to somehow get the word out about their products and services. So the ad model is probably here to stay.

    1. 1

      yeah it does feel like payment something.

      But good for creators that both sides have to "pay"
      1 side pays for placement. 1 side pays with attention.

  2. 1

    More ads! I see some video from chrome developers channel on youtube. They are try to introduce browser based ad (they called it privacy focused ad).

    1. 1

      They'll find our eyeballs, our ears, anywhere we go.

  3. 1

    I'd guess more. The incentives for companies is always to make more money, which means buying/selling more ads.

    One force pushing against this is that consumers want to see fewer ads and have more privacy. So you see the rise of ad-less platforms like Netflix, and moves like Apple preventing ad tracking, which leads to some companies advertising less.

    But overall, I still think the companies' incentives will have the edge over consumer preferences. Netflix is planning to introduce ads, after all. I think we'll just end up seeing more tastefully-done ads that consumers don't mind as well.

    1. 1

      Isn't there a more nuanced "more" as well? Attribution and Targeting tech can allow certain individual consumers who are okay with ads, to get served more. But also balance that with effectiveness. IF someone watches 100,000 ads a day, and wants it, and buys nothing, then ad tech should stop showing them ads. IF they are ineffective.

      So we'll find, as ad tech gets better, attribution, tracking, etc... that our individual ad allowance will be found out. And used not just "against" us to serve more ads, but "for" us to serve better ads, more effectively.

      So some will see more ads, and some will see less (more effective) ads.

      I know the original question was a duality, but not reading through the lines of the answers I find there's much more nuance to "more" and "less"

  4. 1

    More ads! However, they'll be more organic, personalized and integrated into their target audience activities through emerging tech like AI and AR. Intrusive/mass targeted ads will no longer be effective.

    1. 1

      It seems like nothing will stop the intrusion. where there's eyeballs, there will be ads.

      ads for recall, for retention, for retargeting are probably the most "mass targeted" but effective ads.

      They'll spend $5M on a super bowl commercial. and $10M spend for the next 2 months making people recall that single ad.

  5. 1

    Good question, there will be more advs. The good thing is that they will be more targeted and AI driven.

    1. 1

      Maybe you'll just notice the more targeted ones more.

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