Here’s the start of the conversation:
Nerd 1: “Man – those Facebook ads really suck. They are completely irrelevant. And – well – embarrassing (e.g. almost porn.)” I can’t imagine that they ever get clicked on (except the porn.)”
Nerd 2: “Yeah, but it doesn’t matter. It’s all CPM based so all that matters right now are page views.”
Nerd 3: (also co-founder of a generation one search engine): “Yeah – that worked really well the last time around – until the economy went south. Then – CPM rates became asymptotic with zero.”
It went on for a while (along with additional sushi and saki consumption.) It was interesting. And important. And chilling for anyone relying on CPM-based ads only. Maybe it’ll be different this time. But that’s what “they” said the last time. Don’t forget to be sitting in a chair when the music stops playing.