Rethinking PPC

Digital advertising is overdue for disruption. The pandemic gave digital ads a boost for a while, but they haven’t been able to weather longer-term issues like changing tastes for privacy and oversaturation in the D2C markets.

Facebook is feeling it as its ad revenue growth shrinks from year to year. Looks like Zuckerberg was right to be worried when Apple made it easier for iPhone users to stop apps from tracking them. The kinds of D2C companies that used to thrive on Facebook aren’t faring well either. Companies report tripling ad prices and poor results.

The question that remains is “How do you fix it?” Plenty of founders have turned to subscription models instead of ads. Unfortunately, that doesn’t work for every vertical, like D2Cs, plus many consumers are finding that subscriptions are getting costly and hard to manage.

Comrade introduced its solution today — an extension that pays you, the internet surfer, when you engage with an ad. Your browsing activity is used in real-time, while advertisers are bidding on keywords and URLs behind the scenes. Then your activity is discarded immediately after. According to Comrade, there’s no data collection, data sharing, or user profiling.

Comrade flips cost per click advertising around, paying the user for their data, and limiting its use. “Since 1994, when we were still browsing on Netscape Navigator, the cost per click has been paid to advertising platforms only. With Comrade, a large share of that cost per click is finally shared with users for their time and attention,” wrote Comrade co-founder Sami Baddar.

How much users can earn will vary. Baddar explained:.

“It depends on the industry. Since it's a CPC auction, advertisers can bid on the same keywords and URLs, putting the price up considerably, even all the way up to $50 and more.”

What do you think — would you use the extension?

Stride is a game to make every run or walk an adventure. You can discover new routes, compete with friends and neighbors, or simply find a reason to go for a jog.

“The objective is simple: own the most tiles in your neighborhood. To capture tiles just hit start and the app tracks your physical movement in the background,” makers shared on the launch today.

• Metamouse allows you to pay your bills using cryptocurrency. They’re offering users in the Product Hunt community $10 when you make your first payment through Metamouse.

• NEW from Figma: FigJam is now available on iPad to help you sketch out ideas and gather your thoughts.

• For all of you forgetful folks – Rex the Sniffer helps you track and find all of your Bluetooth-enabled devices.

• Vessel’s API helps you securely read and write CRM data using a single interface.