Have webmasters been conditioned to ignore ads?

do you click ads when they are interesting to you?

[paybacksa]

Okay so I saw this cool website for webmasters, and especially for seo-types (it was a simple keyword tool). It had AdSense on it.

Now given the utility of that tool, I am sure the page sees alot of traffic. The ads were pretty good, too. Lots of webhosting (pays well) and SEO ads.

I wonder if the CTR is especially low, because webmasters have been conditioned NOT to click on AdSense ads? Anybody have any experience publishing for webmasters using AdSense? Anybody feel they have been conditioned to avoid clicking ads?

[richmondsteve]

I no longer click URLs of any kind anywhere because I know *they* are watching me. All joking aside, I probably click less ads than I would if I wasn't an AdWords advertisers and AdSense publisher, simply because I realize there's a cost. I do less curiosity clicking and sometimes manually enter the URL instead of clicking the ad. But I'm not blind to the ads - I'm actually probably more observant of them because the more I look at the more I learn about how to construct my own ads and the more I'm aware of who is participating, what's being sold/promoted and what ads can appear for different types of content.

[HughMungus]

I publish/use adsense and I still click on adsense ads that I find relevant to me.

[digitalv]

I have sort of an unwritten rule when it comes to clicking on advertisements. Typically people only pay for advertising if they can potentially profit from your visit - so if I'm looking for something for free I pretty much ignore all advertisements. If I'm looking to spend some money though, I'll click on a number of different ads on the subject and compare them in multiple browser windows/tabs.

[whizkiddo]

i never click on competitors ads. mainly not bcz they get paid but rather bcz it would be like I am trying to ruin themselves by clicking too much or something similar. but once or twice on sites unrelated to work, I have clicked on text ads. And on Google itself, several times. Usually to download the software suggested or to try out the service. If I just find the site intriguing then i take the trouble of entering the url manually. So its like if I am sure I just want to check the site and dont want to do business at all, then i try to save the bloke a few pennies.

[dongjp]

I click on Ads By Google, and then find the url and copy/paste it to Internet Explorer address bar, and then ...

[a1call]

Hi paybacksa,
Great minds do indeed think alike:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[paybacksa]

Thanks for highlighting that... it is interesting to see the same topic ina different "tone". I felt it was better to follow up here....

Seems like a website designed for SEO/Adsense/webaster types will probably see a lower CTR, but it also sounds like the quality of click throughs would be higher (several people noted they only clcikthru when they are actually shopping/buying). If AdSense worked properly, that wouldmean such a page with high-value ads would pay better than normal, despite lower CTR.

Nonetheless an interesting topic!

[anallawalla]

Channels are a great way to monitor this. One of my channels appeals to older people and I am lucky to get one click a month in that channel, yet it has amongst the highest traffic. I suspect the trick is to have very boring pages so that the visitor is tempted to "escape" by clicking an ad. ;)

[dvduval]

I figure there are only so many slices in the Adsense pie. I don't click on any ads. I just go to the URL.

[getadsensed]

Strangely I've noticed that I don't even click on interesting adsense ads that aren't even on my site! Haha