Forum Moderators: martinibuster
Given the widespread use of Google AdSense ads, do other programs out-perform Google in terms of CTR?
What are your thoughts on this?
I don't remember how many years it took back in the good old dotcom days?
I want to make mine blink
LOL ... good one!
we will go from banner-blindness to text link blindness . . .I don't remember how many years it took back in the good old dotcom days?
Banner blindness occurred because the vast majority of ad banners were run-of-network ads that weren't related to the pages on which they ran. Not only that, but many banners were (and are) for dating services, Internet casinos, and the like.
Contextual text ads are different. They're like ads in enthusiast and trade publications. Such "endemic ads," to use a buzzword, add value to content pages in the same way that on-topic advertisements in QST AMATEUR RADIO and BOATING add value to those special-interest publications.
At least, that's how contextual ads are supposed to work. Whether they actually do work that way depends on the ads, the content, and the audience. I'd guess that an ad for cruise deals on a cruising site, or for high-capacitance widgets on a widget circuit-design site, would be much less subject to "ad blindness" than whatever ads Google can find to stick on news pages at Washingtonpost.com or NYTimes.com.
With adsense it's a whole other story. The ads are on topic (most of the time). They are text ads. They don't blink or annoy the user in most cases.
Sometimes website authors take it to the extreme and insert 20 banners on one page. Splitting content in half with a banner that is out of website color scheme, to make it really stand out. But I find that it's generally a very clean network and it should not burn out. After all G hires the best people and I trust them they know what they are doing. After all there were lots of mistakes made in the past, and it's time to learn from them.
Added to that, most people are really stupid and barely know that the CD isn't a cupholder and I think text ads are here to stay.
M
Actually adsense ads are about the least obtrusive, so very easy to ignore.
Not that easy, to judge from Google's most recent earnings statement. :-)
Since publishers are taught to NEVER EVER even THINK about clicking on their own ads (and rightfully so), when publishers see them on another site, that basic instinct is still there.
The public (99.9999% of internet users) are most certainly not immune to google ads and they don't ignore them, unless you make them look like a banner ad.
