Do you click on Google Ads - results of an active poll

[Duncan Rounding]

I saw this today and found it interesting:
http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/poll/10-08-2009/do-you-click-the-ads-on-google

[Darren B]

i always click the sponsored link (when its a competitor :D) but if im honest i always choose natural listings unless i cant find one relevant

[rmorrow]

I just click whatever links look most relevant, whether they're organic or sponsored. (So well-worded ads can draw me in....)

[Mark H]

I always ignore them, not intentionally, but I just don't "see" them when I look at the page.

[pinbrook]

i look more all the ones at the top of the page, i rarely use the ones on the right as i find the quality of these is questionable.

i tend to use natural listings first, but my searching tends to be work related not shopping (just looked at some of my searches for yesterday - 90% did not serve up ads!)

[Goz]

Much like Richard, it's the wording that will attract my attention and I don't mind a bit if it's natural search or paid.

If there is natural search and a paid advert for the same site I will always click on the natural search.

[george]

But there are tits who word their ads to get the click... as opposed to actually having what you want on their site (possibly not at the magic price in the ad either).

:mad:

hate hate hate

[Chunkford]

Fantastic!
I have been saying this to a client for awhile, but he wasn't having any of it.
And that it comes from a very busy site (see here - http://blog.moneysavingexpert.com/2009/08/04/nearly-878000-web-visits-in-one-day-a-billion-hits-a-month/) and you would class the visitors as being the average user makes the figures even more interesting!

Thanks Duncan

[rmorrow]

But there are tits who word their ads to get the click... as opposed to actually having what you want on their site (possibly not at the magic price in the ad either).

:mad:

hate hate hate

But I'd hope in this case you wouldn't buy anything from them and they've just had to pay for your click! I assume these 'tits' have a high 'bounce rate':D

[TraceyHand]

But I'd hope in this case you wouldn't buy anything from them and they've just had to pay for your click! I assume these 'tits' have a high 'bounce rate':D

and expensive adword bills and fewer sales than they could have!
Doesn't really serve anyone, does it?

[Darren B]

Doesn't really serve anyone, does it?

Big G always wins (thats the other big G not the one is this thread ;))

[Chunkford]

Do you think if the question was 'Do you click the ads on Google when buying' that the results would be different?

[plantsforshade]

The normal 'click through rate' on these adds is between 3 and 10% so I have been told. So as an average only 1 in 15-25 times will someone click on the add, I did read somewhere if you get below 1% ie once in a hundred they will remove it "for add improvement". So these figures may be right.

Regards

Nigel

[animal dreams]

The figures don't surprise me. Google analytics told us that adwords was a waste of money a couple of years back!

However, have recently used a very specifically targeted campaign for a few test products with good results - between 5-10p per conversion (£100+ per order). Even if it is only 25% of the people that use them, I'm happy. :D

[Paul Bulpit]

But there are tits

Sorry I'm a bit late in here, and of course I would always click on an ad that had George's passion in it.

But in line wth other remarks and in answer to Duncan's survey:

(i) If it is a competitor, in the interests of research, YES

(ii) If I am lookng for something specific, to purchase for myself, NO.


_______________
Paul

[Steve G Griggs]

I have found that most of the sponsored ads are not related to what I'm looking for, I now ignore them unless I know for sure that the site has really got what I'm searching for.
Most sponsored ads are irrelevant and time wasting as far as I can see....
We use them, but I'm not sure they bring us much profitable business, and we make sure the ads are as accurate as possible.

[thomprecision]

I have found that most of the sponsored ads are not related to what I'm looking for, I now ignore them unless I know for sure that the site has really got what I'm searching for.

Same here. When I'm searching for something that I'm somewhat familiar with, I will scan the domain name before clicking on the result. Domain is usually a giveaway of the link's particular affiliation or bias. I usually ignore sponsored ads, unless I am looking for the official site of some product or service, but even then I scan the domain before clicking it.

[Duncan Rounding]

I almost always ignore the Adwords listings because of the same reasons. I always look at the domain first and in most cases it seems that the search has been 'hijacked' by some other directory/catalog type site which normally has little or no relevance to my original search - something I thought Google was supposedly sorting out.