It’s more auctioned off, and most businesses aren’t involved in the transaction. Everytime you come across an ad, (usually) Google says, “Hey, I got this person who hangs out on Lemmy and searches for Mozzarella pics WAY too much. Who wants to show him an ad?” And Sargento gives them a few pennies to try to sell you cheese. Of course, all this happens before the page loads, so algorithms are used to assign the ads and track whether or not you interacted with them.
It’s more auctioned off, and most businesses aren’t involved in the transaction. Everytime you come across an ad, (usually) Google says, “Hey, I got this person who hangs out on Lemmy and searches for Mozzarella pics WAY too much. Who wants to show him an ad?” And Sargento gives them a few pennies to try to sell you cheese. Of course, all this happens before the page loads, so algorithms are used to assign the ads and track whether or not you interacted with them.