Who clicks on website ads?

[GunRunner]

I don't know if this is the appropriate place to ask this question but I am curious about something. How many of you actually click on ads like AdSense ads when you visit a website? I am talking about legitimate clicks, not talking about clicking on a friends Ads to increase his or her traffic, which is a no-no anyway. I know I never do and I don't know many others that do.

[brandrocker]

Not me really unless the Ad offers something for FREE or something that I really need. I usually prefer to visit advertisers' site by typing the url.

[AlwaysLookin]

I would agree that I do not click on the ad unless it has something for free.

[Dinghus]

Uh huh. You don't click. You don't even look. Uh huh. I believe you. Never. Not once in your entire life have you clicked on an ad. ROFLMBO

What liars we have here.

But let's get down to brass tacks. Why wouldn't you click on an ad? Is it your private little moral outrage at advertising?

Advertising has been around for a VERY long time. If there was no advertising how would you find out about a lot of things? Like probably even this website.

Advertising is NOT a bad thing and I know everyone has at one time or another utilized advertising in making a decision.

Most of us tend to tune out advertising nowdays which is why a good advertisement is one that grabs your attention. If you ever want to learn about the psychology behind advertising you could check out The Psychology of Advertising

Of course if you are that fanatical about NOT having advertisements, then you will never advertise nor allow advertising on your sites I'm sure.

Like that link you have to your blog. Dang those advertisements.

[GunRunner]

I guess I can say that I don't. I can't say that I never have. I am sure that at some time, on some site, some where I may have clicked an ad or 2 in the past but for the most part, I don't click on them.

As far as being a moral outrage against advertising - that might be kind of difficult since I am IN the Ad Game.

Ha ha ha...I was just curious as to how many people click on ads. Maybe I should have put some qualifiers in that question.

[ScottR]

I rarely click ads. Sometimes if they are very interesting and appear on a page that I trust.

However, my wife clicks ads all the time. Not so much on web sites, but in the search results. She doesn't even really look at the results, she just clicks the top "Sponsored Result" 99% of the time.

[Seminole386]

Can't say I never have but the web it an equalizer. When someone pays for a click I think of them as the big boys taking over. If we in the SEO crowd support adsense who needs us?

[tomcatuk]

I click them when they have a real "pull" - an implication that I'm really going to get something (be it information or a product) that's simply irresistable but I'd have to say it's rare an advertiser comes up with something that I find tempting. Too much time spent online and a certain cynicism starts to creep in doesn't it?

My kids, my wife, my parents are all absolute ad clicking nightmares. None of them are able to differentiate between an organic result and a paid for ad. I had a customer call the other day and when I asked where he'd found us, he said we were No1 on Google. I seriously doubted that and went to have a looksie - sure enough, Adwords had us on the page. The customer didn't know the difference - he congratulated me on getting my site to the top of Google.

[jrb@w3f.com]

Who clicks on ads? Thats an easy one.
I do sometimes, as does everyone else.
I believe the reasons are simple.

We click on ads if they seem to go in a direction we want more information about.

We click on ads that are related to the page we are on, when we are bored, or
dissatisfied with the site we are looking at. The alternative is to go back from
whence we came to find a link to persue our path. Clicking on an ad, may be
easier than that, if we feel it is of interest.

Some click for bogus reasons, but they are few. IMHO.

-John

[GunRunner]

My kids, my wife, my parents are all absolute ad clicking nightmares. None of them are able to differentiate between an organic result and a paid for ad. I had a customer call the other day and when I asked where he'd found us, he said we were No1 on Google. I seriously doubted that and went to have a looksie - sure enough, Adwords had us on the page. The customer didn't know the difference - he congratulated me on getting my site to the top of Google.

You know, I completely forgot about that segement. Most of the time I just assume that everyone knows the difference between organic and sponsored search results. I always look at the organic before going to the paid ads. I DO click on those ads when I can't find what I am looking for in the normal SER. I guess when I formed this thread, I was interested in the ads as they appear on websites. This brings up a whold new question.