In response to Eric Bosco’s presentation last week, I’ve been considering just how effective online advertisements really are. The easiest way for me to evaluate the benefit of online ads is to monitor how often I’m inclined to click on them. Granted this is not a significant sample size, but it should prove a point for my personal analysis. I have one general rule which is very simple to follow. Don’t click on any suspicious or unfamiliar banner ad, period. Of course there are exceptions to this rule. But for the most part, I associate clicking on banner ads to making impulse purchases while standing at the checkout line of the grocery store. Some people will fall victim to an impulse buy every time they go shopping, while other people can control their urges to buy impulse items. In this sense, I like to be in complete control my urges and temptations to click on banner advertisements.
There are several reasons that I rarely choose to click on banner ads. The primary reason is that if I don’t know the source, then I don’t trust the source. The majority of online ads seem too good to be true. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve seen a banner ad that congratulated me for being the one millionth viewer or somehow an instant winner and all I have to do is click on the ad to claim my prize. These ads certainly seem too good to be true, and as a result don’t ever merit a click to claim my reward. Now, this makes me wonder just how many people are actually clicking on these banner ads to make them profitable enough to exist. In addition, does anyone ever collect on the prize?
Given the reasons that I don’t click on banner ads, there are some cases when I just can’t help myself. Let me preface this by stating that I’m only inclined to click on an advertisement of a company that I’m familiar with, such as Under Armour or Nike. These banner ads quickly attract my attention because I assume they are more legitimate than the ‘click here to win a free flat screen TV’ advertisement. If clicking on an Under Armour ad does not direct me to the UA website, I’ll abandon my search immediately. I think that most people have become cautious of online advertisements because of the countless horror stories about people having their identity stolen, credit card information compromised, or computer infected with a virus.
There are several reasons that I rarely choose to click on banner ads. The primary reason is that if I don’t know the source, then I don’t trust the source. The majority of online ads seem too good to be true. I can’t even count the number of times I’ve seen a banner ad that congratulated me for being the one millionth viewer or somehow an instant winner and all I have to do is click on the ad to claim my prize. These ads certainly seem too good to be true, and as a result don’t ever merit a click to claim my reward. Now, this makes me wonder just how many people are actually clicking on these banner ads to make them profitable enough to exist. In addition, does anyone ever collect on the prize?
Given the reasons that I don’t click on banner ads, there are some cases when I just can’t help myself. Let me preface this by stating that I’m only inclined to click on an advertisement of a company that I’m familiar with, such as Under Armour or Nike. These banner ads quickly attract my attention because I assume they are more legitimate than the ‘click here to win a free flat screen TV’ advertisement. If clicking on an Under Armour ad does not direct me to the UA website, I’ll abandon my search immediately. I think that most people have become cautious of online advertisements because of the countless horror stories about people having their identity stolen, credit card information compromised, or computer infected with a virus.
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