'Do you click the ads on Google?' poll discussion

GlasgowGirl79

I usually search for terms in locations so I get the google maps coming up and not the sponsored listing (although I think they are at the right hand side). I dont think they do any harm though although I tend to go for the natural listings. But if I search car hire in glasgow I get a map with all of the companies and I pick one. Sometimes I scan down to see if the same companies are in the sponsored listings. This was how I found Logan Car Hire and I saved loads of money bookinb though them. I even used it for holiday car hire and that is something you want a local company you can trust for, so you know who you are talking to.

killick_becki

Generally the sponsored links come up in the main search anyway. If they do i click the sponsored link rather than the link in the main search.

drfrot

I too am a single person business who relies on Google Ads for clients. Please don't ignore the ads, people!

aeryn_2

I used to do this sort of advertising, and know from experience I'm more likely to find what I'm looking for than from the normal listings. The normal listings always seem to be dominated with comparison websites that are really limited and are also paid for listings.

nzseries1

I'm generally put off by google ads because so many of them contain spelling errors, contain references to prices that magically change when you go to the page, or take you to a page saying "Buy this product! If you buy this product you'll lose 80 pounds, get laid five times a day and you'll also save the rainforest !!!!!!!!!"

But I do click them if they're well written, grammatically correct, and seem relevant.

jojo2004

I'm cantankerous enough to actively avoid things which are agressively advertised. I never believe the hype, and I find being bombarded with moronic adverts for things I don't want makes me see red.

I wonder when companies will wake up to the fact that if someone doesn't want to buy something, or worse still, deliberately avoids such products on principle, you can't make them buy it, no matter how many half-naked men/women you drape over it, no matter hw loudly you shout etc etc (yes, I am talking to you Mr Cillit Bang. I won't buy Cillit Bang on principle, whether or not it is cheap or effective, because I hate your ad so much. Great work...)

Anyone else avoid certain products/brands etc on the basis of stupid ads? Please tell me I'm not alone (and a bit mad...) xx;)

nzseries1

jojo2004 wrote: »

Anyone else avoid certain products/brands etc on the basis of stupid ads? Please tell me I'm not alone (and a bit mad...) xx;)

I won't buy from Swiftcover because I object to being told to "Get a life" (and why would I ever conceivably want "insurance on my insurance"??).

I always say I'm going to not buy Muller Corners because of that god-awful ad where each of the people say what they've got... "I've got my biscuit got me crunch! I've got my cherryyyyyyyy!!!!!"... Christ I hate that ad. But I still buy them because there's not really an alternative.

And I don't buy from Vodafone ever since their advertising campaign said "Unlimited internet!!!!" which, when you read the small print, was limited to 2GB per month.

And there's an internet cafe on Charing Cross Road which advertises in huge letters "Free Wifi! Only £1 per hour". They'll never be getting my business.

jojo2004

I'm not alone!! Thank you!

A few more (gosh, I love to rant!):
Yorkie - it's 'not for girls'? Fine, I'll buy a better chocolate.

Dettol spray - I don't want to kill 99.9% of germs - I want an immune system that works, thanks.

Any of the daft yogurts with 'Bifida Acti-Regularum' (or whatever the made up nonsense name is) - natural yogurt has an active ingredient that helps digestion, you don't need an added ingredient!

jaamit

Really fascinating to see the results of this poll. Only a couple of years ago I saw polls like this which showed the majority of people didn't even know there was a difference. Shows how savvy people have got, and confirms how much people distrust paid ads.

Rightly so, in my opinion. The organic results rank sites according to how relevant they are to what you type in, and more importantly, how many 'votes' (links) have been given to each site from other sites across the web. It's this democratic algorithm that made Google the household name for searching online, and essentially it means that (most of the time), if a site is on page 1 in natural results, they deserve to be there based on being voted for by the rest of the web. The sponsored results, on the other hand, show up not because they're the best results but because that site has paid to be there.

One thing I would say though - I think people's attitude towards paid ads depends on what kind of search they're doing. If you're looking up "tooth decay" you're probably looking for information rather than a product. But if you search "Sony Bravia 32" TV" you'd probably be a lot more receptive to offers in ads. Correct?

fiish

jaamit wrote: »

One thing I would say though - I think people's attitude towards paid ads depends on what kind of search they're doing. If you're looking up "tooth decay" you're probably looking for information rather than a product. But if you search "Sony Bravia 32" TV" you'd probably be a lot more receptive to offers in ads. Correct?

Ditto here! I was half here, half there when voting this poll. I usually ignore the ads in the Google search results, unless I was doing a search for an item I was planning to buy (e.g. to see where it was for sale); in such a case I would give the ads a skim, as sometimes shops advertise deals in there. Usually find better deals through shopbots or Google Products though.