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Gaming the
algorithm to
‘manifest’
Picture
Courtesy:
Doctor Strange
(Marvel
Studios)
Earlier this week,
a friend told me
about a meme
format that
trended on TikTok
sometime last
year. It shows a
person sneakily
speaking into
someone’s phone so
they see content
around those
keywords, hoping
for it to elicit
the desired
outcome. It’s like
dropping subtle
hints, but with a
little help from
internet
algorithms.
The morning after,
I [obviously] saw
one such video on
Instagram Reels,
the place known
for regurgitating
TikTok
hand-me-downs.
The video
shows a woman
staring at her
mobile screen from
a distance while
the caption reads:
“My Hinge date has
left his phone
unattended at the
table, and I’m
trying to
influence his
targeted ads.” She
leans in closer to
the phone and then
launches into a
monologue of
instructions:
Therapy.
Therapy for
men. How to
dismantle the
patriarchy.
Therapists for
men. Finding a
therapist for
me, a male.
Female 0rgasms.
How to do my
washing.
Therapy.
Therapy…
Half the people I
showed this clip
to
agree that our
phones listen in
on everything we
say even if we’re
not directly
interacting with
our devices. 100%
of them LOLed.
Alisha Pereira, a
content producer
from Mumbai,
belongs to the
former batch. She
has even tried
speaking into her
phone’s microphone
about things she
doesn’t want, like
winter clothing
[Did I mention she
lives in Mumbai?],
just to see if the
algorithm
misinterprets it
as her showing
interest in that
commodity and
throws ads around
it on her browser
and social media
feed. It did.
Besides having fun
at the expense of
the algorithm,
Alisha regularly
uses it to her
advantage, too. “I
put items in my
cart or bookmark
them on the web
browser and start
getting ads
(largely on
Instagram) from
competition or the
same brand, often
at lesser prices.”
It helps her with
shopping and
making travel
plans. “Otherwise,
it is impossible
to go through
every site to
research to check
the available
brands for
shopping, or to
check hotels and
flights for
travel,” she says.
This
adding-to-cart and
waiting [till
someone offers you
a better deal] is
a “smart
strategy”, says
Gautam Mehra,
co-founder of
ProfitWheel, an
adtech firm that
specialises in
performance
marketing and
programmatic
advertising. It is
often adopted by
people he calls
the “gamers”.
“These are the
deal seekers, the
hackers, people
who used to cut
coupon codes from
newspaper ads in
the past, who now
keep different
cards or fintech
service accounts
to avail discounts
on every online
transaction they
make.”
In short, these
people are out to
“maximise the
system”, he says.
Exhibit A.
And the system
lets them do that.
Here’s how: Google
tags you into
specific cohorts
called affinity
users and
in-market users.
Google Ads defines
the affinity
audience as per
its habits and
interests that are
based on
“long-term life
facts”, while
‘in-market’
segmentation is
done basis sudden
interest, often
interpreted as
“recent purchase
intent”. The
in-market audience
is lucrative for
retailers and
etailers,
especially the
small businesses,
who spend a lot of
money trying to
convert them, says
Mehra.
“It’s
cost-effective for
a D2C marketer to
reach you again
[it’s called
remarketing] with
an intent to
convert you into a
customer. It takes
about Rs 5,000 a
day to reach 1
lakh people. They
may offer
discounts as well
if their goal is
to grow
aggressively.” The
discount you get
is not a function
of the algorithm
per se but that of
a business
strategy that is
often informed by
the algorithm’s
segmentation.
Marketplaces, like
Amazon, may not
offer discounts
because they
cannot make it a
practice to “erode
gross margins”,
Mehra adds.
At this point, I
pause to see if
this is getting
too technical. Is
it though? There
used to be a time,
says Nirali Shah,
when the algorithm
was considered
jargon for those
of us who were
being “controlled
by the platforms”.
Now she regularly
hears "the
algorithm sucks"
or "the algorithm
is not showing me
X's posts" or "the
algorithm is
killing my reach"
from friends whose
jobs aren't
exactly related to
social media.
“Everyone wants to
be a victim of the
algorithm now,”
says Nirali, a
content strategist
who operates
multiple Instagram
accounts for work
and personal use.
“For work, I have
one IG account
related to
skincare, one
related to decor,
one dedicated to
small business and
one dedicated to
text memes.” She
also has a
separate account
for fitness
content which she
logs in to when in
dire need of
motivation. “I
stumbled on this
by mistake, when I
made a finsta
[fake Insta] to
look at someone's
Insta story and
realised the
discover page was
so different than
mine,” she says.
Algorithms are
designed to create
an echo chamber,
but more and more
people like Nirali
are realising the
importance of
breaking out of
that chamber for
professional and
personal growth
and finding ways
to beat the
algorithm at its
own game.
Mayank Jain, who
heads marketing at
a fintech firm in
Bengaluru, has
multiple dummy
accounts to game
the algorithm on
LinkedIn, he says.
“I’ve created
multiple such
accounts and
followed certain
technology
companies from
these accounts. I
state that I’m
looking for a job
so I can get
hiring ads from
these companies,
many of whom are
our competition,
and analyse them.”
Why go to such
lengths to see
rival ads, you
ask? Mayank tells
me these companies
can tweak their
settings to
exclude employees
of certain
companies from
seeing their ads.
“That includes
hiding these ads
from their
employees in some
cases,” he adds,
“when they’re
allowing WFH as a
perk to the
potential recruits
but have forced
their existing
employees to
return to
offices”.
Mayank also has
different email
IDs he uses to
create accounts
with different
shopping and
social platforms.
Every now and
then, he opens
these inboxes.
“Sometimes they
give me a great
insight, other
times a funny
tweet.”
It must feel great
when you see the
algorithm ‘getting
played’ after
playing with your
feelings and
influencing your
actions all this
while. But it gets
“annoying” pretty
quickly, says
Mayank. “I had
subscribed to
multiple car
dealers online to
set the algorithm
in motion and get
good deals from
each one of them.”
Then he was
inundated with
messages and calls
from these service
providers much
after he had
closed the deal
with one of them.
“Last week, I sat
and cancelled my
subscription to
all these services
to declutter my
inbox and
notification bar,”
Mayank adds.
Following multiple
Instagram accounts
gets quite
overwhelming for
Nirali, too, she
says. To say
nothing of the
fact that it makes
her realise
evermore that
there is no such
thing as
‘mainstream’ on
the internet. That
every trend is in
a bubble, only the
size of the bubble
varies.
Yet, with the
frightening
lengths that
algorithms go to,
to mine our data
and throw us
baits–Alisha once
got an ad for a
staycation at a
palace hotel she
had seen as part
of a historical
fiction show on a
streaming
platform–it is
indeed good to
know the algorithm
is capable of
being thrown off
its
game once in a
while. That more
non-tech folks are
deliberately
making the
algorithm think
what they want it
to think.
Do you have any
hacks to break the
algo spell, too?
Do tell.
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By Shephali Bhatt
