Post-Purchase Targeted Ads

Users primarily complain about targeted online ads that continue showing products they have recently purchased, deeming them irrelevant and poorly timed, while some defend retargeting or note occasional relevance. Discussions question the effectiveness of such advertising and share personal anecdotes of annoyance.

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Sample Comments

CmonDev Jul 11, 2014 View on HN

Will those ads know that I bought/browsed for something several month ago and still try to sell me similar products that I no longer need?

georgeburdell Jul 26, 2024 View on HN

Do you actually get relevant online ads? I usually get ads about the thing I just bought

over_bridge Sep 28, 2021 View on HN

Who else will follow me around the internet with ads for products I've already purchased and will never ever purchase again?

nukeop Dec 31, 2017 View on HN

That's how targeted ads work - if you bought a product in the past, you must be interested in buying the same type of products, every week, forever, and you'll be interested in seeing ads for these products.

i usually get ads for things that i just bought. That means they are very good at snooping, on the other hand if I just bought a TV set then that doesn't mean that i would need another one soon.Funny that Goole/Facebook currently don't seem to be running ads for complements of products too often; Amazon is better at that (if you bought this book, then you might also want this one).

gwbas1c Oct 5, 2020 View on HN

Are you sure the data is from the purchase? For example, did you search for similar things before making the purchase?Otherwise, sometimes I suspect ads are targeted by IP. Sometimes I see ads for things my wife is interested in.You might want to try VPN. At least you'll see ads for all the sketchy things other VPN users buy!

aitoehigie May 1, 2022 View on HN

The only targeted ads I ever see are for items I have already purchased.I don't see why these ads don't work like Amazon's "People who bought this also bought" recommendations.

Hermitian909 Jun 7, 2019 View on HN

I see the line of "they showed me an ad for X after I bought one on their site!" thrown around a lot as a sign of incompetence, but the fact you made the purchase recently actually makes you a good target demographic.You wanted some good and paid money for it. There's is now a real chance that the good you bought did not meet your needs, it broke it sucks, etc. If so, you're a prime target for these ads. If it broke you're probably looking for a new brand, or m

rednerrus Jan 24, 2020 View on HN

I can tell you that Instgram serves up ads for things I didn't know that I wanted that I end up buying.

jarfil Jan 16, 2019 View on HN

The worst kind of targeting is when I go to a website, browse some similar items comparing their features and price, buy one... and now you decide to show me ads about those same products for the next week even if it should be clear that I've already made up my mind (I'm looking at you, Amazon).