Welcome to our Tweet of the Week, where we spotlight insightful, thought-provoking, maybe even weird tweets from the world of adtech. Every Friday, we’ll bring you one tweet that captures important trends, shares valuable data, or offers unique perspectives on the market.
This week’s featured tweet comes from Aram Zucker-Scharff, Senior Staff Software Engineer for Privacy & Security Compliance at The Washington Post. In response to data shared on X by Garrett Johnson, a marketing professor at Boston University’s Questrom School of Business, Aram raises questions about the effectiveness of retargeting.
To recap: Garrett shared findings from a new BU study of over 2,000 advertisers (worth a read!), which revealed that retargeted ads can increase baseline conversions by more than 4.6%. Aram, however, threw some cold water on the data, suggesting that even the most favorable analysis indicates a less than 5% uplift from retargeting. He questioned why “buyers still obsess over retargeting for this tiny sliver.”
Aram’s tweet challenges the effectiveness of retargeting but also highlights the broader trade-off between identity-driven retargeting and privacy. The FTC’s controversial report from a few weeks ago labeling behavioral advertising as “surveillance advertising” adds some more spice to the debate. (See the IAB and ANA rebuttal to that report here.)
A thought: Aram’s skeptical view of retargeting and the FTC’s stance on behavioral advertising might highlight the appeal of contextual advertising. These two things just feel connected. For what it’s worth, according to Statista, global contextual ad spend hit $227.38 billion in 2023. That number is expected to more than double by 2030, hitting $562.1 billion.
But we digress! Check out Aram’s full tweet here and share your thoughts in the thread.
