Left Wagon or Right Wagon?

This morning during rush hour, the subway pulled up. On the left, a wagon with plenty of open seats. On the right, a wagon full of standing straphangers. I was standing just between the two wagons on the platform with a few seconds to pick one.

My emotional first want was the left wagon. But in that split second, I selected the right wagon. With my experience commuting, the joy of reading my book while sitting in the left wagon struck me as too good to be true. The left wagon had a broken AC or other serious issue. The right wagon offered a known discomfort.

That split-second decision came from muscle memory.

It reminded me of the buying choices for digital ads. Every agency or advertiser makes choices. These choices are reflected in the selections entered into your DSP/ad server, insights drawn from historical big data, systems put in place, data shared in the bid request, algorithms relied upon, influence from your AI/clients/colleagues, and the team member running your account.

When we decide whether to buy certain ads and for how much, we are responding to the choices made by others. Sometimes the better option is the one with social proof. Other times, there is more value in inventory which is overlooked by the market. Each of us develops a view on why inventory has the quality and price that it does, and how our choices, and others’, shape the outcome.

It’s not simply a math problem because there isn’t perfect information — the market is influenced by both humans and technology, and we are responding to others. Muscle memory plays an important role in the choices we make.