..heavy clickers are:
- More representative of lower income households than the average user.
- Less educated than the average user (or from less-educated environments in the case of minors).
- More likely to live outside of the major metro regions.
- More likely to be using SNSs to meet new people than the average user (who is more likely to be using SNSs to maintain connections).
This is also interesting:
Wealthier users are more likely to spend money online, but they are less likely to click on ads. Poorer users are more likely to click on ads, but not likely to spend money online except in a few verticals. Wouldn’t this then mean that Google is more likely to get the eyeballs of those likely to spend money, but statistically less likely to make money off of their clicks?
That means that businesses can actually benefit greatly from using e.g. Google AdWords to advertise their business by using it for branding and not trying to get more direct clicks to their website. If the data the article is referring to is correct then the people that can afford the products might glance over the AdSense banner and while they might not click they might notice the URL or the brand name (product name or company name) and visit the website later on (or Google the brand name) without it costing the advertiser anything. Something to think about for your AdWords strategy…
This is also something affiliate marketers that are you using AdWords have to think about - I’ve seen a lot of affiliates using the product’s URL as the display URL. This is probably not the best strategy if people see the URL but don’t click your ad (with your affiliate link) but just visit the URL directly later on. That’s why you should get a custom domain name for all the most important products you’re promoting as an affiliate.
10 responses so far ↓
felista // Mar 1, 2008 at 6:33 pm
Hi hannes,
I am not sure i get you on this one especially on the paragraph of affiliate links and getting a custom domain name
Hannes Johnson // Mar 2, 2008 at 9:56 pm
@felista: Well, if you’re promoting a product through AdWords and the product’s URL is Flowers.com you could buy the domain BuyFlowers.com or BeautifulFlowers.com and use that as the display URL instead of Flowers.com
- Then it’s more likely that you will get the affiliate commission if people don’t click your ad and just type in the display URL.
Let me know if I should explain this in more detail :)
Adrian // Mar 4, 2008 at 4:40 pm
Hi Hannes,
Your tips are very informative. Keep up the good research.
Craig Klein // Mar 6, 2008 at 4:21 am
Some people have more time than money, some have more money than time.
Dan Florin // Mar 9, 2008 at 8:49 am
more then 70% people that click the ads don’t have a clue they are ads.
Hannes Johnson // Mar 9, 2008 at 10:57 pm
@Dan Florin: Yes, exactly - as an advertiser you have to take that into considerations - are you always paying for clicks from valuable prospects? Some AdWords advertisers make sure that their ad looks like an ad for a product people have to pay for…
The User // Mar 18, 2008 at 8:07 pm
I just look at this as another reason that more companies will move towards CPA.
Obviously, some products are very relevant to those with lower incomes, but if I’m a premium brand a lot of the visitors will be out of my target market. With CPA you really don’t care who is being sent to you, you’re just paying for the visitors who actually buy (or signup, or whatever).
Hannes Johnson // Mar 18, 2008 at 11:47 pm
Good point. Yeah, as a product owner you can just offer an affiliate program and let the affiliates worry about paying for clicks ;)
But affiliates can also look at this as an incentive to create their own products - to make sure they’re getting their money’s worth from their advertisements.
Angie // Mar 19, 2008 at 12:34 pm
In general, it seems like the research is saying that ad blindness is more common in those who are educated. Still, one has to wonder if it is not just a matter of well-crafted, well-worded ads. Most AdWords advertisers are small business owners without the funds to do appropriate market research to ensure they are using the terms and hooks to snare their target audience.
Tyler Ingram // Apr 6, 2008 at 2:56 pm
Sounds interesting that lower income people click ads because they don’t know their ads? Guess the less educated portion is what drives this huh?
It’s why it’s good to colour your ads the same way your links are coloured so you can increase the likelyhood someone will click on a textlink ad huh?
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