> But I'm almost certainly not interested in starting a camera collection, nor am I interested in incompatible brands to what I just bought.

You might not be, but as a guy with easily a dozen cameras from half a dozen brands, we're absolutely out there, and I know plenty of other folks in my network who do too.

(Reason: I travel a lot, I live stream for a living, and my partner does social media.)

But if these companies know so much, surely they can work out that you have this particular buying habit, and other people don't have it.

> I live stream for a living, and my partner does social media

I'm old. I don't understand how the economics of this work, and I think of it was explained to me, it would annoy me.

People in TV shows are paid (via the production company) because the TV broadcaster is paid, because it sells advertising during the show. Advertisers pay because the broadcaster can demonstrate that a lot of eyeballs are watching, and they commission programmes that many eyeballs enjoy watching. There can also be direct sponsors, merchandising, franchises, etc.

People in livestreaming are paid because their platform is paid, because it sells advertising during the livestreaming. Advertisers pay because the platform can demonstrate that a lot of eyeballs are watching, and they support livestreamers that many eyeballs enjoy watching. There can also be direct sponsors, merchandising, franchises, etc.

That's cool, but would you say banner ads are actually driving your purchases?

>> Guys, if I buy a photo camera

If you buy one camera, you are likely a billion times more likely to buy another. And, you have the disposable income to be in the market.

>> there's things one doesn't buy again often, like washing machines

You are not a whale, but you might be. Most people only buy one washing machine but a few people buy dozens (apartment managers and such). Such people, whales, sometimes buy one as test case. So ya, if you buy one then you are a strong maybe for one day buying many more.

Sometimes I wonder if it's about returns. "You bought one washing machine, but you might not like it and return it, so how about these others". Could even be that they're tracking sales only rather than sales minus returns, because returns take longer to come in so the metrics are harder to track.

The thing is for every 1 guy that just purchased it, the retargeting is getting 99 people who just looked at options and haven't purchased yet. So even if that 1% will never buy again in a short time, the whole cohort is still many times better than random non-retargeted people.

Amazon must make more money from camera brand ads than from selling camera accessories. Every time they push a camera to someone who already has one, they get paid for that, and the ad buyer can't easily verify. The person is flagged as liking cameras, after all.

Once you realize you are the product on Amazon's search page it makes a lot more sense. Over half the listings are paying amazon for higher placement into that search. It's long since stopped being a search experience that works for the shopper.

No, that makes no sense. Sure, my data is valuable for advertisers, but:

The washing machine advertiser doesn't want to to spend money to show me an ad for something I'm not going to buy, and even Amazon doesn't benefit because they get something out of each purchase, so they should want to show me stuff I want to buy too.

There's just nobody that benefits from bad ad selection.

...except Amazon :)

Please explain how Amazon benefits from bad ad selection to an equal or greater extent than good ad selection.

They don't need to compete because they have a monopoly, so offering a worse service keeps the advertiser spending more money.

You do another search, and they get more revenue

Forget the camera analogy. Use something like a new toilet seat. I buy one, I don't need to buy more. I'm not a toilet seat collector.