Maybe I'm unique in this experience, but the "actually more relevant to me" part is just never true. Most of the ads I see that are delivered via these auctions are just garbage or scams or "relevant" in a tenuous pointless way.

The only really relevant ads I've seen are from blogs that literally just sell ad space to brands and the ad is just a simple image link you can click on. Philosophy blog? Philosophy book ad. High end men's clothing blog? High end men's clothing brand ad.

Or "relevant" in the sense that it's something I bought recently: I searched for vacuum cleaners, found one I liked an bought it. Now I will be seeing ads for vacuum cleaners for the next few months.

I get hyper-targeted ads trying to sell me electrical distribution equipment and air handling units because I run commercial electrical work (mostly mechanical equipment focused) and search for a lot of equipment part numbers. They’re on target, but ineffective.

None of the ads could ever be effective, I have my supply houses that I buy from and they don’t advertise online.

I do have a decent amount of buying power at work (single digit millions a year) but no internet ad from an electrical distributor is ever going to influence my purchasing decision.

The really funny ones are when you buy something online then receive a deluge of ads for the thing you just purchased