> A Microsoft research paper on machine learning this year said that improving predictions of when a user will click on an ad by just 0.1 percent would yield hundreds of millions of dollars in new revenue.
Do you really need a 'research paper on machine learning' to understand that?
Perhaps that's the trick -- if you make an ad look less like an ad, it's 0.1% more likely to convert.
And Google still hasn't figured out how to best their search advertising network business, so I assume that people click on ads, even if I'm not in that demographic.
You should really watch a child play a game that has interstitial ads. It's quite obvious that they often click on ads because they want to learn more (maybe not fully convert, but intentionally click).
I am curious if that millions in revenue is for Microsoft (not surprising) or advertisers (more interesting) - I would love to read through their thought process either way.
Do you really need a 'research paper on machine learning' to understand that?