Does anyone have resources on why it's best to place ads based on the user profile instead of based on the related content on the page?
Personally, my interest fluctuates quite a lot and is probably closer to the current article than a median projection. When I want to buy a new thing, that interest is only valid for the time until the purchase decision.
It's just an observation and probably naive. But it seems like content-based ads could be quite efficient while requiring much less privacy-invading tracking.
It just seems like a lazy way to automate ad buys. If you had to consider the content on the page and match the ad content to the page, that's just more effort and thinking to be done. Advertising is dubious enough, companies aren't going to pivot like this to see a blip on the radar.
Sometimes contextual relevancy is the best. Ads on search results are contextual since they can be easily aligned to what you're looking for.
Other times, the content is generic or there's more info about the user (which is usually more behavioral than simple interests) and it's better to target that way. For example, you may be reading local news but you looked at new shoes yesterday, so it's better to show you ads for the shoes and try to complete that purchase than generic ads for local businesses.
Personally, my interest fluctuates quite a lot and is probably closer to the current article than a median projection. When I want to buy a new thing, that interest is only valid for the time until the purchase decision.
It's just an observation and probably naive. But it seems like content-based ads could be quite efficient while requiring much less privacy-invading tracking.