Mumsnet - advertising for profiteers.

[CatWithKittens]

I am very surprised to see Mumsnet permitting an advertisement for 10 x 250ml alcohol sanitisers at the outrageous price of £239.99. Surely we should be discouraging excessive prices at this, or any other, time. Equivalent products cost about a tenth of this price in November last year and it is difficult to believe that the ingredients or manufacturing process has got any more expensive - indeed there should be economies of scale if anything. The ad is at:
jlpmedical.com/products/case-of-12-jlp-medical-professional-alcohol-gel-hand-sanitiser?variant=33107484508295&currency=GBP&utm_campaign=gs-2020-03-09&utm_source=google&utm_medium=smart_campaign
and came up on a Mumsnet page. Shame!

Mumsnet have little say over what's advertised as it just comes up based on your browsing or is random (if you delete your cookies - mine is Nintendo Switch advert at the moment), I suspect they pay a package fee and get whatever. I won't get the same adverts as you - but have you searched for sanitiser?

It’s google advertising not mumsnet.

It's based on what you're searching for.

Nowt to do with MN.

YABU. It’s based on your own personal browsing indicators. Nothing to do with mumsnet.

I’ve been getting adverts for some rather dodgy looking manga today. I’ve literally never searched for manga or anything similar, I can’t think what could have triggered them but I know they’re nothing to do with this site as such.

Before everyone says the OP is being unreasonable. If mumsnet has available ads spaces available on their website they will have someone who controls the Google Ad Sense/any other programmatic bid server that allows people to advertise on their site for profit. Just like every other website you can control and block certain ads from appearing on your site if you open your ad space for people to bid for.

I'd love that as, I keep getting one for all-male gay cruises!

I’ve literally never searched for manga or anything similar,

BarkandCheese You don’t have to have directly searched for something. The algorithms are exceptionally complex and based on far more than simple direct searches.

Adverts are based on a multitude of things you have done over the years that you won’t even remember.

Nowt to do with MN.

Not quite true - MN signed up for (and get revenue from) various advertising syndicates.

And I am sure that "nowt to do with MN" line wouldn't last 5 seconds, if MN started showing ads for porn sites, or the like.

While it's true MN are probably unaware of every advert shown under the aegis of their brand it's also true they do receive a revenue from every ad ....

I have reported the post to MNHQ so they can have a look at and comment

My apologies to Mumsnet if it is google's fault. I had not searched for sanitiser but will now certainly be trying to stop the ads which I had always assumed paid for Mumsnet and over which I therefore assumed they had some control.

My apologies to Mumsnet if it is google's fault. I had not searched for sanitiser but will now certainly be trying to stop the ads which I had always assumed paid for Mumsnet and over which I therefore assumed they had some control.

Taking the money is control ...

Ta for letting us know - and for providing some link info.
We'll move this over to Site Stuff - and investigate asap.

It looks like the advert is shown if you've visited the advertiser's site.
They may be 'retargeting' you by showing lots of ads once you've left their site (retargeting is to bring users back after they have left without purchasing - and the ads will seem to follow you around everywhere). Clearing your browser cookies might help stop this from happening.

Thanks for the suggestion but I had never to my knowledge visited their site until I saw the ad this morning on MN. I then went back to it in order to get a link to put in my post.

It's more to do with keywords and your search history. Not necessarily because you visited the site. With a lot of people talking about Covid-19 the algorithm picks keywords from peoples search history and sites you have visited. (Doesn't have to be remotely be that exact product). And they label you as someone of interest to market their ads too. But that's just everyone in business.