Podcast Summary: "Is Your Ad Experience Good Enough For Your Customers?"

The Digital Marketing Podcast – Daniel Rowles & Ciaran Rogers
Date: September 9, 2017

Overview

This episode focuses on a core, often neglected question: Is your advertising experience actually enjoyable or at least tolerable for your customers? Daniel and Ciaran break down where digital advertising went wrong, why consumers are pushing back, and what brands—especially those using programmatic and display ads—need to reconsider to create customer-friendly ad experiences. The discussion blends practical insights with pointed critique (and a bit of ranting) about retargeting, ad blocking, industry self-regulation, and Google’s evolving role in shaping the digital ad landscape.

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Problem With Most Digital Advertising (00:19–03:37)

• Brute Force Tactics: Early digital advertising used display and banner ads as a blunt tool—overexposing users and relying on volume rather than relevance.
• Retargeting Gone Wrong: Retargeting was supposed to be smart ("I’ll show you ads for what you viewed"), but often becomes invasive and repetitive.
  • Analogy: Ciaran likens this to a shopkeeper following you from store to store after you declined their offer (01:50).

    "You would never do that in the high street...and yet online, people do it all the time and think it’s perfectly okay." – Ciaran (02:20)

• Customer Experience Neglected: Marketers rarely ask, “What is the actual customer experience of seeing our ads over and over?”
  • Tools like frequency capping and ad sequencing exist, but are underused.

2. Programmatic Advertising & Its Mysteries (03:37–06:22)

• Opaque Programmatic Practices: Agencies tout “smart targeting” through programmatic but often can’t—or won’t—explain what they’re actually doing.

  "If it can’t be explained…either your agency just thinks you’re stupid...or they don’t really know." – Daniel (05:11)

• Need for Transparency: Brands should demand clarity about targeting practices and understand how incentives (like volume) can misalign with customer experience.

3. Industry Self-Regulation & The IAB (06:22–07:52)

• The IAB’s Self-Regulatory Attempt: Tiny icons on behavioral ads theoretically let users understand and opt out of targeting, but most users are unaware or find the process too complex. Progress is good in intent, but poor in execution.

  "When you click on it, it’s mind-bendingly complicated to change your settings." – Daniel (07:13)
  "The sentiment’s in the right place…they’ve just not quite got the good solution." – Ciaran (07:28)

4. The Rise of Ad Blockers (07:52–10:51)

• Consumer Backlash: Heavy ad saturation and bad experiences led to widespread ad blocker adoption. For some demographics (like young, tech-savvy students), use is as high as 70%.

  "If you want to get to this audience, they are a tough audience to get to through ads and it is a reaction to poor quality advertising." – Daniel (09:32)

• The Chicken-and-Egg Problem: Content is funded by ads, but users block them, threatening the ecosystem. Micropayments could be a solution, but no one has cracked it due to technical and fee barriers.

5. Google’s Efforts To Improve Ad Experience (10:51–16:47)

• AdWords Quality Score: Google's method for aligning ads with intent, relevance, and user experience is praised for search but has been less effective for display.
• New Google Initiatives:
  • Ad Experience Reports in Search Console: Analyze whether your site’s ads are annoying or disruptive—SEO rankings may be penalized for poor user ad experience (13:24).
  • Machine Learning Targeting: Increased reliance on AI to understand intent and interests for smarter, more relevant ad placements (14:33).
  • Less Annoying Ad Formats: New display formats tested for being less intrusive (15:04).
  • Improved Advertiser Filtering: More refined controls for where ads appear to avoid inappropriate placements (15:25).
• Positive Movement: Google’s moves are both reactive to pressure and proactive in promoting a better balance between advertiser goals and user experience.

6. Metrics vs. Experience: The Retargeting Trap (16:47–17:46)

• Quantitative Gains, Qualitative Losses: Marketers chase the “extra 2%” in conversions but don’t track how many potential lifelong customers they annoy or alienate.

  "Because the numbers tell us to...what it doesn't take into account is how many people did you irritate, how many negative touch points have you had with your brand..." – Daniel (16:47) "When you’re just going on simple metrics…it doesn’t tell you the damage it can be doing." – Ciaran (17:09)

7. Google Chrome’s Planned 'Ad Filtering' (17:46–22:57)

• The Controversy: Google plans to add 'ad filtering' (not ad blocking) to Chrome, allowing "acceptable" ads (likely Google's) through, citing quality standards. Critics question if the world’s largest ad seller should set these standards.

  "A company that makes 97% of its revenue by selling ads is going to build an ad blocker into their browser...but that ad blocker will allow their ads through, because they are not annoying." – Daniel (18:17)

• A Brave Move or A Conflict of Interest?: While it's positive to improve experience, there are concerns about market dominance and regulation:

  "I’m not sure that the world’s largest seller of online ads is best placed to be the decider on what the best ads are." – Daniel (19:17)

• Balancing Acts: There are always trade-offs in improving user experience, which sometimes coincide with increased competition and higher ad costs for advertisers.

Notable Quotes

• On Retargeting:

  "If you’re not careful, you run the risk of doing this...shopkeeper follows you in...and that would clearly be wrong. You would never do that in the high street." – Ciaran (01:50–02:31)

• On Defining Programmatic Magic:

  "There’s some big brain people in our programmatic team doing this stuff and they can’t tell you what they’re actually doing." – Daniel (04:40)

• On Ad Blocking Culture:

  "70% of [my Imperial College] students use ad blockers...If ads were showing more value, then actually we wouldn’t bother doing this." – Daniel (09:24–09:37)

• On Google’s Ad Filtering:

  "The world’s largest seller of online ads is best placed to be the decider on what the best ads are." – Daniel (19:17)
  "Everybody knows that the searcher is king and that’s one of Google’s adages." – Ciaran (19:41)

Important Timestamps & Segments

• 00:19–03:37: The problem with intrusive digital ads and bad retargeting.
• 03:37–06:22: The hype (and opacity) of programmatic advertising.
• 06:22–07:52: IAB’s self-regulatory initiatives for behavioral ads.
• 07:52–10:51: The rise and consequences of ad blocking.
• 10:51–14:11: Google’s AdWords Quality Score & new display ad initiatives.
• 14:33–16:47: Advances in AI-driven targeting and less annoying ad formats.
• 16:47–17:46: The hidden cost of chasing retargeting numbers.
• 17:46–22:57: The debate over Google Chrome’s planned ad filtering and its implications.

Final Thoughts

The episode urges marketers to regularly put themselves in their customers’ shoes: continually review your ad experience, don’t blindly trust agencies or data, and question whether you’d tolerate the tactics your brand is using. The landscape is changing—fueled by user backlash and major platform intervention—and businesses must adapt with humility and transparency. Ultimately, the customer’s experience is the only sustainable “edge” in digital marketing.

For ongoing updates, Daniel recommends following the Google Webmasters blog, and they mention an in-depth companion article coming soon at TargetInternet.com.