Early internet advertising billed by views even when clicks were trackable
Evidence
Google’s earliest ads had been considered more effective than most online advertising at the time because they were linked to search queries and Google could track when users actually clicked on an ad, known as the “click-through” rate. Despite this, advertisers were billed in the conventional manner according to how many people viewed an ad. As Search expanded, Google created the self-service system called AdWords, in which a search that used the advertiser’s keyword would include that advertiser’s text box and a link to its landing page. Ad pricing depended upon the ad’s position on the search results page. — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 238
Categorization
- XREF: connects to: Click-through pricing shifted ad value from views to measured engagement — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 258; Google’s quality-score system tied ad placement to measured clicks — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 890; Web metrics incentivized traffic and clickbait over prestige and quality (+3 more)
Broader Connections
- Google’s quality-score system tied ad placement to measured clicks
#qualifies(0.80) — Tim Wu, The Attention Merchants, 890 - Web metrics incentivized traffic and clickbait over prestige and quality
#complicates(0.75) - Google’s early ad-matching patents replaced guesswork with predictive behavioral data
#expands(0.75) — Shoshana Zuboff, The Age of Surveillance Capitalism, 245