In this post, I want to share a few thoughts about online advertising and my journey into this industry.
Doubts. Who loves ads? Really, who thinks that ads are great? Yes, there are good ads. Inspiring ads, uplifting ads, ads that make you think, and some ads that just perfectly fit your needs. Now to be honest, the four mentioned types represent a small share of the online advertisements that I am exposed to. I am seeing ads that follow me for way too long (Yes, conversion rate, but are you also checking incrementality? Your frequency cap is my ruined brand experience). Other ads are just boring. When you are working in ad-tech, you recognize that a lot of ads are simply broken. Ads slow your online experience down (have a look at pi-hole, if you would like to check). And then, there are a lot of ads that are not relevant to me.
This was enough to make me wonder whether I really wanted to keep working in the online advertising industry. When I was younger, I thought about becoming a physician. I worked in a hospital for three months. It was partly disappointing. I experienced that ‘Health’ is also an industry. And the hierarchy is terrible. Once I was reprimanded because I went through the door before the head doctor. But, of course, as a physician, you are doing good. You help people.
Later, I studied environmental science. Again, a lot of dissolution in this field. Great topic, but a lot of work done in the industry are ‘risk management’ activities. It’s about legal compliance. I rarely experienced ambition. That being said, sustainability is more pressing than ever before. Whatever people do to save this planet - in their job or at home - is good.
Without my intention, I was offered a job in online advertising. So I took the offer and pivoted from ‘Sustainability Tech’ to digital marketing and advertising technology in 2015.
In Q4 last year, during my parental leave, I started to look for a new role. And I was not sure whether I should stick to the advertising and ad tech field. Luckily, I am working for a big corporation. So there is the opportunity to move to new fields without tapping into completely new waters.