Why do we get such stupid ads? Because it’s only a numbers’ game…

Newco Shift : Dear Advertising Industry: Please Do Better. You’re Killing the Open Web. … :

Let’s apply that reality to our robe example. Let’s say the robe costs $60, and yields a $20 profit for our e-commerce advertiser, not including marketing costs. That means that same advertiser is can spend upwards of $19.99 per unit on advertising (more, if a robe purchaser turns out to be a “big basket” e-commerce spender).  So what does our advertiser do? Well, they set a retargeting campaign aimed anyone who ever visited our erstwhile robe’s page.  With CPMs averaging around a buck, that robe’s going to follow nearly 20,000 folks around the internet, hoping that just one  of them converts.