The Psychology of a click

the effect of the visitor's mood

[Hobbs]

2 Months ago we discussed The Anatomy of a click [webmasterworld.com].

Today I want to discuss The Psychology of a click.

What are your observations concerning the visitors clicking behavior with reference to the general population mood (if there is ever such a term)

I am not talking about people clicking more in shopping seasons or return to school, or vacation seasons..

I am trying to find out your observations oh how clicks fluctuate as a factor of war, peace, post Christmas (minus the shopping effect), stability vs. turmoil, anyone observed detectable mood patterns in clicks?

My own experience is that the larger the sample, the more predictable your traffic becomes, and amazingly the more sharply repeated patterns you will record, I'm detecting clicks density patterns, but want to know if anyone else is reading this too.

[humblebeginnings]

Interesting question. Always had this idea that I get a lot of clicks from people who are searching, but don't know exactly what they are searching for. These wandering minds seem to be impressionable for (Google) ads. I base my theory on the huge quantities of Adsense clicks I used to get for certain Adwords keyphrases that I aimed at people who where looking for a solution, but didn't know the exact product or service they needed in order to create that solution. However, the trouble with these wandering minds is that they click but don't convert. Just my 2 cents concerning the psychology of clicking ads. It's about people who are looking for a solution, but don't know yet what to purchase. So to find out they do a lot of clicking...

[hal12b]

It seems to me the less educated the person, the more apt they are to click. Hence, I click like crazy everywhere. All kidding aside, my web sites that are geared more towards red necks than IT people do well. Of course the type of site has a lot to do with it too. Forums and Classified web sites tend to do not as well. That topic has been posted here several times.

These are my observations from my niche market.

Build a site around digging holes or growing a mullet and see what happens.

[Scurramunga]

... geared more towards red necks

Marginal propensity to spend? Perhaps?
If so this would almost certainly have the effect of ensuring that your ads attract visitors that are more likely to generate successful conversions.

[inbound]

Rednecks = Arbitrage Heaven ;)

On a serious note, the major pattern that we see is a surge in interest in the spring, probably as our sites cater for home-owners (people have an urge to clean/improve their home during the spring - carry-over from primitive nesting instincts?)

[celgins]

My niche creates a variety of different traffic patterns. The site is an online magazine, so it contains a host of different topics.

For example, my pages about relationships, culture, and community receive more traffic during the first part of the year. This is due to Valentine's Day, the arrival of Spring, etc.

Though Google states that a "conversion" is not strictly a sale, and could be (number of pageviews, a sign-up, etc.) -- I feel my site receives more "emotional" clicks during this part of the year. I also feel that it's much more difficult for Google to determine the weight of a conversion when it's not based on a traditional sale.

[europeforvisitors]

I am trying to find out your observations oh how clicks fluctuate as a factor of war, peace, post Christmas (minus the shopping effect), stability vs. turmoil, anyone observed detectable mood patterns in clicks?

In the last few days, I've noticed a sharp increase in CTR starting on December 25. This could reflect something different at Google's end (e.g., a change in the ad mixture), but it's more likely to be a shift in mindset from "I've gotta think of a gift for my wife/husband/boyfriend/girlfriend/partner" to "Jeez, the holidays are over, the skies are grey, and vacation can't come too soon."

I always see a major increase in traffic, AdSense revenue, and affiliate bookings (the latter out of proportion to the traffic increase) immediately after the first of the year. A lot of people must find it depressing to go back to work after New Year's Day.

[noodlebox]

In my studies, click rate went down this x-mas by significantly 1/3 .. however it may return normal as we pass the new year (maybe 1/3 of my unique traffic is away partying), however my studies shown that there has been more single ads than four/three ads on my leaderboard and being the same ad all day seems like it's not going to attract others to click the ads. (shame).