8 ms·

I have a sneaking suspicion that certain groups of people are just much less susceptible to ads. I never click on ads. I mean, literally never. If you run an ad

I have a sneaking suspicion that certain groups of people are just much less susceptible to ads. I never click on ads. I mean, literally never. If you run an ad monetized site, I am the moocher who never makes you any money. If I search Google for something, and the result comes up as both an ad and a non-ad, I click on the non-ad link. If it only comes up as an ad, I keep searching. With me it's almost irrational, stemming from when long commercial breaks would interrupt cartoons and movies I watched. Ironically, I am building a mobile app that's going to be ad monetized (well, at least the free version will be). I suppose that makes me hypocrite. At the same time, I think I'm not alone. There's just something dreadful about having your decision making so directly influenced. It's sort of a "why are you trying to push this thing on me? Is it not good enough to stand on its own merit?" I believe that when I need something, I will find it and do my own research. This is why I also never put much value in Facebook. Who clicks on those ads? Aren't you just there to socialize? Edit: I should say that I am aware enough to realize that there are much more subtle form of marketing that definitely do influence me. If a person I respect gives something a good review, for example, I will be more likely to buy it. If a company has a good story to tell about themselves, that makes me think highly of them. If it's a product I've seen on Shark Tank I'm more likely to consider it because I'm more familiar with what they do. Ads are just too obvious about it for me.

AtmaScout 12y ago
I'll click the ad if it is for a company I don't like and have to use. For example, particular ISPs.
orng 12y ago
Yes, I am the same. I never, ever click on ads. If an ad happens to interest me (this happens extremely rarely) I google the product rather than clicking on the ad. For me however, I don't think it has anything to do with me not wanting to be influenced by ads and everything to do with the legacy of shady internet ads. Growing up you learned that clicking ads on the internet will get your computer infected or similar so you learned that all ads were shady and to stay away from them. Although I today know this is not always the case, the imprint remains.
joosters 12y ago
Just viewing the ad will subtly affect us all, however 'immune' we think we are. If anything, the ads will enhance brand recognition...
Encosia 12y ago
Speaking as someone who runs several sites which cater to several demographics, you are very correct.
corin_ 12y ago
> If I search Google for something, and the result comes up as both an ad and a non-ad, I click on the non-ad link Slightly off-topic, but I do something a little different as my own "screw you" to stupid advertisers. If I see an advert in my search results that I'll find useful, I don't mind clicking it. For example if I search "London cinema" and a certain cinema has paid to be up there that I'm actually interested in, why not click it. If they were already in the organic results above the fold, I'll click organic to save them their ad budget. However if I see an advert that's targeting their own brand name that I just searched (for example if I searched "Y Combinator" and saw YC had both top organic spot and a paid ad above) then I'll specifically click on the paid spot to cost them money. Just because you'd be amazed how many people in how many ad agencies make themselves look good to clients by using their own brands to push up results. Yes, if you have a paid advert for when people are already looking specifically for you of course you'll bump up your overall performance for search budgets. (There is an argument - which may be correct at times - for needing to bid on your own brand / product names so as to outbid competitors aiming for them, but I've never yet been shown any data to actually justify the cost.)
- rfergie 12y ago
  I have done a few tests on this brand bidding thing. A couple of writeups can be found at: http://www.eanalytica.com/blog/unforseen-risks-when-stopping-brand-bidding/ http://www.eanalytica.com/blog/unforseen-risks-when-stopping... http://www.eanalytica.com/blog/Richard-Fergie-at-Biddable-World/ http://www.eanalytica.com/blog/Richard-Fergie-at-Biddable-Wo...
  - corin_ 12y ago
    Thanks, good links but you don't demonstrate (though I presume in your case its the case, otherwise you made a poor decision) to what extent you lose clicks by stopping vs. the money you waste by bidding on your brand.
    - rfergie 12y ago
      Can't remember the exact figures any more, but for the first example (where we did stop brand) it was something like for every £1 spent on brand AdWords generated £3 from brand queries (organic + PPC). At this ROI the money could be better spent in other channels. But as you can read in the post there were unforeseen consequences which I can go into more detail on this if you email me. I've also seen it where £1 spent on brand generated £18 in incremental revenue so in this case it was worth keeping on.
olalonde 12y ago
It's also easy for me to ignore ads on the web. I am always baffled by those commenters on HN who claim they would rather pay for content rather than seeing ads or those that seem to have a deep aversion for ads. For me, ads are so easy to ignore that those point of views are hard to understand.
- DanBC 12y ago
  I am happy to pay for content because people need to make a living. I don't block ads but I would be glad if I could pay to turn ads off.
  - tombrossman 12y ago
    I'm also happy to pay a site for content, but I have to point out that we all pay for both the ads and content. When you pay directly you cut out a layer of middlemen (the ad company / broker) so I see subscription-based sites as more efficient than ad-supported ones.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- Tinyyy 12y ago
  That’s not the only thing that paying for content gives you, though. Paying for content gives you a right to the content, it gives you a power over the content, just like paying taxes gives you a vote and power over the country’s governance. If you don’t pay for it, then you can’t really expect the website to be working for you.
- GrinningFool 12y ago
  It's not the ads that bother me [if they're not moving/sounding or actively drawing my attention]. It's the implicit cross site tracking. If someone hosts their own ad content, I'm far more likely to click it if it's relevant (and won't block it, which is my default for anything cross-site).
  - deleted 12y ago
WA 12y ago
There's just something dreadful about having your decision making so directly influenced. It's sort of a "why are you trying to push this thing on me? Is it not good enough to stand on its own merit? I have a sneaky suspicion that the same is true for these popups you see all over the internet. I have a basic rule: If there is a popup, I just close the tab. I don't care how good the content is. It can't be that good if the webmaster needs to catch my attention like a needy girlfriend by flashing stuff in my eyes. Close and gone. I wonder if I'm in such a minority such that it doesn't matter, or if this is intentional segmentation or just plain stupidity on the side of webmasters.
- simi_ 12y ago
  Excuse my gratuitous comment, but I'm just happy to see that I'm not alone. I too _deeply_ despise ads, and popups, and anything that I need to dismiss to get to the content. However, how can a blogging programmer make some money off its blog then? Donations or micro-donations (think Flattr/Gratipay/etc) is the only idea I can think of.
  - WA 12y ago
    I'd go with Affiliate links and mark them as such. This is a matter of trust, because there's clearly a conflict of interest. If you recommend something and get money for the recommendation, how good are your recommendations after all? But if you have a trustworthy relationship to your readers, it's usually appreciated if they get tips on books or software that helps them. If you get a few bucks for a recommendation, everybody wins. Also, you could start your own product (e. g. an ebook or a tutorial about something), although this requires clearly more effort. The advantage of affiliate is that you get to select the products you recommend, unlike with most ads.
  - pjc50 12y ago
    Turn this around: what would cause you or anyone else to pay money to a blogger? When did you last do this yourself?
    - GFischer 12y ago
jrs235 12y ago
"I have a sneaking suspicion that certain groups of people are just much less susceptible to ads." Especially a demographic that is more likely to use ad blocking browser plugins.
- Alupis 12y ago
  > Especially a demographic that is more likely to use ad blocking browser plugins. I don't think it's just that. It's a demographic that is largely responsible for running ads on various platforms (websites, apps, etc). This same demographic will inherently understand ads, how they work, how they are usually not what you are looking for, what types of manipulations are involved, etc. I never click on any ads either, although I don't employ any ad-block programs (so I suppose if a site is getting paid for impressions rather than clicks, then they are monetizing in some small way off my traffic). It's not that I despise ads, like some folks are mentioning. I've just come to tune them out; I don't even really notice them on sites I visit anymore. At the office, however, a large part of my dayjob is invested in learning how to best position ad content, and re-target users to entice them into making purchases. Ads are a necessity. A significant portion of the online-population does not employ the same product search capabilities as the folks here on HN -- and because of this we've found ads are a major driver of traffic to ecommerce websites... I don't see them going away any time soon.
rzt 12y ago
You should read about the "third person effect": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-person_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-person_effect "The Third-person effect [1] hypothesis or Third-person perception or Web Third-person effect [2] predicts that people tend to perceive that mass communicated media messages have a greater effect on others than on themselves, based on personal biases; additionally, because of this perception, people tend to take action to counteract the messages’ influence. The Third-person effect hypothesis often manifests itself through an individual’s overestimation of the effect of a mass communicated message on the generalized other, or an underestimation of the effect of a mass communicated message on themselves."
- IgorPartola 12y ago
  I see what you are driving at. However, Google is a $33 billion company, yet I made them exactly $0 through ads, which is their primary business. In my mind that means that someone must be clicking on those ads, and I'm sure it's not me.
  - deleted 12y ago
    [deleted]
  - woliveirajr 12y ago
    Google earns money just because someone shows you the ad. And if I'm not mistaken, when you click in some ad, the site showing it also earns money. So, basically, people spend money anyway, but you just "reward" the site when you click on it.
  - rzt 12y ago
    You are a set of eyeballs or "impressions." Maybe you won't click on the ad, but you were displayed it, which is a success in and of itself.
cordite 12y ago
Sometimes the ad link (like on bing for example.. for a new machine with IE) for a search like Google Chrome actually goes to some side-site that tries to pack extra bloatware or malware with it. Overall marketed links seem less trustworthy than something high ranking by its own merit.
nsxwolf 12y ago
I get 3 kinds of ads mostly - ads for scammy crap no one in their right mind would click on, ads for expensive enterprise software packages, and ads for stuff I just bought. I'm not the decision maker at work. I can't influence a decision on the purchase of a $XX,XXX software package. The ads for things I've already bought are particularly sad, because it's too late. I'm not buying another bunk bed, but after I bought a bunk bed (with no help from advertising engines) I spent the next month ignoring ads for bunk beds. Someone is not getting their money's worth on these ads.
- TrevorJ 12y ago
  I tend to think that remarketing actually hurts many times. I hate visiting a site to consider a product, only to then be followed around the web by banners for that project for days after. It makes me hate the product.
_nedR 12y ago
Lately I find that if I am shopping for something through google, I do click on relevant ads (often for a listing on ebay, amazon or flipkart), along with other standard search results. Of recent, I have been finding that the ads being shown are sometimes more relevant than the actual search results. (Ad targeting getting better or google making search results worse?). Maybe e-commerce websites are more efficient in India?(India is going through a e-commerce boom right now) On the other hand, I rarely if ever click on site and blog ads (that make it through Noscript). Guess that is why Google has the most ad revenue on the internet (even though facebook arguably has more user data and people spend more time on it on average).
threatofrain 12y ago
I would add this: you call yourself a moocher for not clicking on ads, but I would add that clicking on ads isn't enough. You need to justify the advertisement by buying the relevant product, otherwise over time people will think that Google ads have trouble leading to customers, and maybe X is better. Personally, I think if someone does something for me, I'd rather pay them directly and become a customer. But until then, I am well aware that the real clients are advertisers, not me.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
kaybe 12y ago
What I have noticed recently is that if I want to buy something very specialized (say, a good spectrometer), it is very hard to find the sellers. The internet is usually no good and needs major effort to find anything at all. Information is usually handed down within companies and organisations, and very hard to come by otherwise. I wish I got some advertisements from these companies so I knew what offers existed at all, instead of more advertisements for things I know exist and I don't want or need (about any consumer product at all).
- lifeisstillgood 12y ago
  Perhaps this is where a good blog about the market for spectrometers would be useful, and if the suppliers were far-sighted enough is one of those cases where affiliate links, correctly and honestly put out, would work. I don't know your profession (Ok now I do - vulcanology - cool!) but if you need this equipment and need to search hard for it, others are too.
drpgq 12y ago
I'm sure if we had a histogram of clicking ads versus IQ, it would be interesting but not particularly surprising. Versus age would be interesting too.
ibebrett 12y ago
They don't care that you aren't clicking. The ad industry is moving towards impressions. That you are seeing the content.
- IgorPartola 12y ago
  Interesting. Got any good reads on this?
  - ibebrett 12y ago
    I work in the industry, so I kind of picked this up through osmosis. I will ask someone at work if they have any good literature.

AtmaScout 12y ago

I'll click the ad if it is for a company I don't like and have to use. For example, particular ISPs.

orng 12y ago

Yes, I am the same. I never, ever click on ads. If an ad happens to interest me (this happens extremely rarely) I google the product rather than clicking on the ad. For me however, I don't think it has anything to do with me not wanting to be influenced by ads and everything to do with the legacy of shady internet ads. Growing up you learned that clicking ads on the internet will get your computer infected or similar so you learned that all ads were shady and to stay away from them. Although I today know this is not always the case, the imprint remains.

joosters 12y ago

Just viewing the ad will subtly affect us all, however 'immune' we think we are. If anything, the ads will enhance brand recognition...

Encosia 12y ago

Speaking as someone who runs several sites which cater to several demographics, you are very correct.

corin_ 12y ago

> If I search Google for something, and the result comes up as both an ad and a non-ad, I click on the non-ad link Slightly off-topic, but I do something a little different as my own "screw you" to stupid advertisers. If I see an advert in my search results that I'll find useful, I don't mind clicking it. For example if I search "London cinema" and a certain cinema has paid to be up there that I'm actually interested in, why not click it. If they were already in the organic results above the fold, I'll click organic to save them their ad budget. However if I see an advert that's targeting their own brand name that I just searched (for example if I searched "Y Combinator" and saw YC had both top organic spot and a paid ad above) then I'll specifically click on the paid spot to cost them money. Just because you'd be amazed how many people in how many ad agencies make themselves look good to clients by using their own brands to push up results. Yes, if you have a paid advert for when people are already looking specifically for you of course you'll bump up your overall performance for search budgets. (There is an argument - which may be correct at times - for needing to bid on your own brand / product names so as to outbid competitors aiming for them, but I've never yet been shown any data to actually justify the cost.)

rfergie 12y ago
I have done a few tests on this brand bidding thing. A couple of writeups can be found at: http://www.eanalytica.com/blog/unforseen-risks-when-stopping-brand-bidding/ http://www.eanalytica.com/blog/unforseen-risks-when-stopping... http://www.eanalytica.com/blog/Richard-Fergie-at-Biddable-World/ http://www.eanalytica.com/blog/Richard-Fergie-at-Biddable-Wo...
- corin_ 12y ago
  Thanks, good links but you don't demonstrate (though I presume in your case its the case, otherwise you made a poor decision) to what extent you lose clicks by stopping vs. the money you waste by bidding on your brand.
  - rfergie 12y ago
    Can't remember the exact figures any more, but for the first example (where we did stop brand) it was something like for every £1 spent on brand AdWords generated £3 from brand queries (organic + PPC). At this ROI the money could be better spent in other channels. But as you can read in the post there were unforeseen consequences which I can go into more detail on this if you email me. I've also seen it where £1 spent on brand generated £18 in incremental revenue so in this case it was worth keeping on.

olalonde 12y ago

It's also easy for me to ignore ads on the web. I am always baffled by those commenters on HN who claim they would rather pay for content rather than seeing ads or those that seem to have a deep aversion for ads. For me, ads are so easy to ignore that those point of views are hard to understand.

DanBC 12y ago
I am happy to pay for content because people need to make a living. I don't block ads but I would be glad if I could pay to turn ads off.
- tombrossman 12y ago
  I'm also happy to pay a site for content, but I have to point out that we all pay for both the ads and content. When you pay directly you cut out a layer of middlemen (the ad company / broker) so I see subscription-based sites as more efficient than ad-supported ones.
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
Tinyyy 12y ago
That’s not the only thing that paying for content gives you, though. Paying for content gives you a right to the content, it gives you a power over the content, just like paying taxes gives you a vote and power over the country’s governance. If you don’t pay for it, then you can’t really expect the website to be working for you.
GrinningFool 12y ago
It's not the ads that bother me [if they're not moving/sounding or actively drawing my attention]. It's the implicit cross site tracking. If someone hosts their own ad content, I'm far more likely to click it if it's relevant (and won't block it, which is my default for anything cross-site).
- deleted 12y ago

WA 12y ago

There's just something dreadful about having your decision making so directly influenced. It's sort of a "why are you trying to push this thing on me? Is it not good enough to stand on its own merit? I have a sneaky suspicion that the same is true for these popups you see all over the internet. I have a basic rule: If there is a popup, I just close the tab. I don't care how good the content is. It can't be that good if the webmaster needs to catch my attention like a needy girlfriend by flashing stuff in my eyes. Close and gone. I wonder if I'm in such a minority such that it doesn't matter, or if this is intentional segmentation or just plain stupidity on the side of webmasters.

simi_ 12y ago
Excuse my gratuitous comment, but I'm just happy to see that I'm not alone. I too _deeply_ despise ads, and popups, and anything that I need to dismiss to get to the content. However, how can a blogging programmer make some money off its blog then? Donations or micro-donations (think Flattr/Gratipay/etc) is the only idea I can think of.
- WA 12y ago
  I'd go with Affiliate links and mark them as such. This is a matter of trust, because there's clearly a conflict of interest. If you recommend something and get money for the recommendation, how good are your recommendations after all? But if you have a trustworthy relationship to your readers, it's usually appreciated if they get tips on books or software that helps them. If you get a few bucks for a recommendation, everybody wins. Also, you could start your own product (e. g. an ebook or a tutorial about something), although this requires clearly more effort. The advantage of affiliate is that you get to select the products you recommend, unlike with most ads.
- pjc50 12y ago
  Turn this around: what would cause you or anyone else to pay money to a blogger? When did you last do this yourself?
  - GFischer 12y ago

jrs235 12y ago

"I have a sneaking suspicion that certain groups of people are just much less susceptible to ads." Especially a demographic that is more likely to use ad blocking browser plugins.

Alupis 12y ago
> Especially a demographic that is more likely to use ad blocking browser plugins. I don't think it's just that. It's a demographic that is largely responsible for running ads on various platforms (websites, apps, etc). This same demographic will inherently understand ads, how they work, how they are usually not what you are looking for, what types of manipulations are involved, etc. I never click on any ads either, although I don't employ any ad-block programs (so I suppose if a site is getting paid for impressions rather than clicks, then they are monetizing in some small way off my traffic). It's not that I despise ads, like some folks are mentioning. I've just come to tune them out; I don't even really notice them on sites I visit anymore. At the office, however, a large part of my dayjob is invested in learning how to best position ad content, and re-target users to entice them into making purchases. Ads are a necessity. A significant portion of the online-population does not employ the same product search capabilities as the folks here on HN -- and because of this we've found ads are a major driver of traffic to ecommerce websites... I don't see them going away any time soon.

rzt 12y ago

You should read about the "third person effect": http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-person_effect http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Third-person_effect "The Third-person effect [1] hypothesis or Third-person perception or Web Third-person effect [2] predicts that people tend to perceive that mass communicated media messages have a greater effect on others than on themselves, based on personal biases; additionally, because of this perception, people tend to take action to counteract the messages’ influence. The Third-person effect hypothesis often manifests itself through an individual’s overestimation of the effect of a mass communicated message on the generalized other, or an underestimation of the effect of a mass communicated message on themselves."

IgorPartola 12y ago
I see what you are driving at. However, Google is a $33 billion company, yet I made them exactly $0 through ads, which is their primary business. In my mind that means that someone must be clicking on those ads, and I'm sure it's not me.
- deleted 12y ago
  [deleted]
- woliveirajr 12y ago
  Google earns money just because someone shows you the ad. And if I'm not mistaken, when you click in some ad, the site showing it also earns money. So, basically, people spend money anyway, but you just "reward" the site when you click on it.
- rzt 12y ago
  You are a set of eyeballs or "impressions." Maybe you won't click on the ad, but you were displayed it, which is a success in and of itself.

cordite 12y ago

Sometimes the ad link (like on bing for example.. for a new machine with IE) for a search like Google Chrome actually goes to some side-site that tries to pack extra bloatware or malware with it. Overall marketed links seem less trustworthy than something high ranking by its own merit.

nsxwolf 12y ago

I get 3 kinds of ads mostly - ads for scammy crap no one in their right mind would click on, ads for expensive enterprise software packages, and ads for stuff I just bought. I'm not the decision maker at work. I can't influence a decision on the purchase of a $XX,XXX software package. The ads for things I've already bought are particularly sad, because it's too late. I'm not buying another bunk bed, but after I bought a bunk bed (with no help from advertising engines) I spent the next month ignoring ads for bunk beds. Someone is not getting their money's worth on these ads.

TrevorJ 12y ago
I tend to think that remarketing actually hurts many times. I hate visiting a site to consider a product, only to then be followed around the web by banners for that project for days after. It makes me hate the product.

_nedR 12y ago

Lately I find that if I am shopping for something through google, I do click on relevant ads (often for a listing on ebay, amazon or flipkart), along with other standard search results. Of recent, I have been finding that the ads being shown are sometimes more relevant than the actual search results. (Ad targeting getting better or google making search results worse?). Maybe e-commerce websites are more efficient in India?(India is going through a e-commerce boom right now) On the other hand, I rarely if ever click on site and blog ads (that make it through Noscript). Guess that is why Google has the most ad revenue on the internet (even though facebook arguably has more user data and people spend more time on it on average).

threatofrain 12y ago

I would add this: you call yourself a moocher for not clicking on ads, but I would add that clicking on ads isn't enough. You need to justify the advertisement by buying the relevant product, otherwise over time people will think that Google ads have trouble leading to customers, and maybe X is better. Personally, I think if someone does something for me, I'd rather pay them directly and become a customer. But until then, I am well aware that the real clients are advertisers, not me.

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

kaybe 12y ago

What I have noticed recently is that if I want to buy something very specialized (say, a good spectrometer), it is very hard to find the sellers. The internet is usually no good and needs major effort to find anything at all. Information is usually handed down within companies and organisations, and very hard to come by otherwise. I wish I got some advertisements from these companies so I knew what offers existed at all, instead of more advertisements for things I know exist and I don't want or need (about any consumer product at all).

lifeisstillgood 12y ago
Perhaps this is where a good blog about the market for spectrometers would be useful, and if the suppliers were far-sighted enough is one of those cases where affiliate links, correctly and honestly put out, would work. I don't know your profession (Ok now I do - vulcanology - cool!) but if you need this equipment and need to search hard for it, others are too.

drpgq 12y ago

I'm sure if we had a histogram of clicking ads versus IQ, it would be interesting but not particularly surprising. Versus age would be interesting too.

ibebrett 12y ago

They don't care that you aren't clicking. The ad industry is moving towards impressions. That you are seeing the content.

IgorPartola 12y ago
Interesting. Got any good reads on this?
- ibebrett 12y ago
  I work in the industry, so I kind of picked this up through osmosis. I will ask someone at work if they have any good literature.