Ads and algorithms

 

When you use any social app that uses an algorithm to show you what it thinks you will like do you ever feel like you see stuff that you don’t like or some of the ads seem kind of random? It’s because, for a lot of things, it is more pay-to-play, if you want something and you search it up on Google you are most likely going to get Amazon as your first option. It’s because Amazon is a big company that can afford to pay to have their ads pushed and shown to people. But smaller businesses that can’t afford to do that aren’t shown, so when you look something up it does not show you the best result based on what you wanted it shows you the brand that paid the most to be there. It can also be the same with what you see on your social media, people who get more likes and shares get pushed more and people can pay to be pushed and shown to others. Like if you’re looking on Facebook for a dog groomer, the first person you see most likely paid Facebook to push their ad and make sure it was shown.