The area of study that studies how consumers choose and use products, the motivation behind their choices – is called Consumer Behaviour.
Companies and marketers want to know what influences consumers, how are they influenced by emotions, family, and how they respond and interact with ads online. Most of us use an Ad Block because we are bombarded with ads daily (a few years ago there weren’t so many) and as a result companies smarten up about it.
Take a look at newspapers which asks viewers to turn off their Ad Blocks in order to stay on page or continue to read the desired content; oftentimes they even show you a list of ad blocking apps and show how to turn the one you have off. Others, like Facebook, changed how they publish content and switched algorithms so that the sponsored content is shown even if an Ad Block is installed on a particular device.
I, for one, receive ads featuring shoes, jewellery (girly I know), and eco-friendly, conscious, handmade, vegan beauty and skincare type of products because they noticed that this is the content I am most responsive and interactive with. I’m sure these brands – assisted by Facebook insights, saw that I click on the ads containing products like the above then go to the brand page, like it, interacting with other posts relating to what I was interested in.
I have started making more eco conscious choices as we are literally drowning in plastic, in nature or supermarkets. I have purchased wet wipes and nasal tissues made from bamboo from a brand called The Cheeky Panda (UK based) from Amazon, just this past weekend. The benefits of using such products are endless, for us and for the planet as well.
Users have posted examples of conversations where they’ve spoken over the phone’s microphone about cat food and they’ve had cat food in ads on Facebook a few hours later. I don’t have Facebook on my phone for that reason and I didn’t have that happen on the laptop either. A similar thing happens with how they suggest connections on the same platform.
My question to you is, how do you interact and respond with ads online? What are you searching for and have you seen yourself targeted with a certain type of ads? If yes, what were they? Recognize the patterns and let me know, I’d love to have your feedback!
Thank you for reading, see you next time!
ELENA BLOGS, YOU READ 
I find very interesting and scary at the same time how brands know what are we looking for: in some cases, it is pretty obvious (as you say in your post) as we tend to look on the internet for those things we are interested in and “cookies” do all the work keeping this data. I didn’t know though about the Facebook conversations and i found that very curious.
Overall, I think this is a fascinating post, nice work!
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Yes, every website we visit tracks what we looked at, how long we stayed on the website, what pages we went to, what we looked at! They also want to know if we return to the site, how often. We can’t really refuse cookies, they don’t give us that option which is interesting. Thank you for visiting and for the feedback, Andrea! I’m about to post another so hope you enjoy!
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I find very interesting and scary at the same time how brands know what are we looking for: in some cases, it is pretty obvious (as you say in your post) as we tend to look on the internet for those things we are interested in and “cookies” do all the work keeping this data. I didn’t know though about the Facebook conversations and i found that very curious. Overall, I think this is a fascinating post, nice work!
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That is how they get us hooked on a product, more or less. Great to hear you don’t rush into purchases but rather take the time to think about it.
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Hi! I really enjoyed reading your post and liked that you focused on adverts because nowadays it’s really hard to get rid of them when you enter a website or just want to read a news article. I had the same experience as you! One time I was looking for some products online and since then the only adverts I get are related to these products. It’s unbelievable what Consumer Behavior can do!
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What you experienced is targeting, which they are experts at for a long time now, they have it perfected. Tell me how seeing so many ads changes your consumer behaviour, do you block them or do you interact with them? Or do you just go about ignoring them entirely? Because yes, consumer behaviour can do a lot, like altering advertising and how it’s done. They all want to be whitelisted now, on a lot of websites. So, install your adblock browser on the phone and in your laptop and have them beg to be seen.
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