Mathew's comments - Latest Comments in Who clicks on all those Web ads?

Re: Who clicks on all those Web ads?

mathewi — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:49:02 -0000

That's true, Tino -- many people may not even be aware that they are
clicking on an ad if it's a text link, which I guess helps to explain
why Google is so critical of sites that use such links and try to
disguise them as content.

Re: Who clicks on all those Web ads?

Tino Buntic — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 17:29:22 -0000

That research was Mediapost analyzing it's own site, which would not make it representaive of the internet as a whole. Mediapost is a website for "media, marketing, and advertising professionals," the exact type of people that know an ad when they see it and, hence, don't click on it. (Weird, because where does the low income, old, midwestern females fit into this site?).

Outside of this group, there is a large number of people that really don't know an internet ad is an ad. Websites and blogs that appeal to this type of group (non internet marketers, non-bloggers, non-advertising professionals) see higher click-thrus.

Even if you do a proper survey of non-internet-savvy folk and ask them if they click on internet ads, you still may not get accurate results because they would answer "no" to a question that asks "if they click on internet ads" if they do not even realize that an ad is an ad.

Re: Who clicks on all those Web ads?

mathewi — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:44:02 -0000

That's a good point, Marcel -- and danah even mentions something like
that in her post. TV ads and the Home Shopping Network and so on may
have similar "click-through" rates, but they're not as easy to track
as Web ads.

Re: Who clicks on all those Web ads?

marcel weiss — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 15:39:05 -0000

wow, shocking.

No, seriously. does that surprise anyone? It actually says nothing about webadvertising but it says something about advertising. just because these kind of numbers are available for webadvertising doesn't mean it is per se worse than say tv-ads. what do you think would be the clickthrough-rate on tv-ads if there were any and it would be measureable? exactly.
webadvertising comes with two more features than the normal ads from the analog age:
1. people can click through to the product
2. targeting can be made way better (long tail yadda yadda)

Re: Who clicks on all those Web ads?

Thalles Waichert — Mon, 03 Dec 2007 14:31:31 -0000

interesting... i always asking me about that. Recently I have developing a academic research about the ads and content blogs. May be these data will help me.

Ahn, by the way... i write my progress on my blog... it's in portuguese, but if you wanna read i will apraciate!

sorry about my grammar mistakes... hehe