But that&#x27;s not at all what happens. First, the plumbing company buys ad space from that morass of companies in the article&#x27;s diagram. Then the add distribution network decides who sees the ads. And in the specific case we&#x27;re talking about, users didn&#x27;t see the relevant ads until after they made a plumbing purchase. So it failed at every level.<p>They don&#x27;t appear to be targeting people who are in the market for plumbing supplies and hitting a few who already have them, from what we can tell. They appear to not be targeting people who are in the market at all until after they&#x27;re out of the market.