What Makes Users Click (or Not Click) on Your Online Ads?

By Karen Axelton

Your small business’s online advertising may be getting more results than you think—even if users are not directly clicking on your ads. New research from CrowdScience showed more than half of Internet users worldwide had clicked on an online advertisement in the past six months. And even if they didn’t click, more than three-fourths of users in the 25-54 age group had taken other actions, such as visiting the business’s website or doing online research about the company or product.

CrowdScience found some interesting results as to what age groups were most likely to click on ads. Surprisingly, older Internet users (age 55 and up) were the most likely to click on an ad; by comparison, just 58 percent of Internet users in the youngest age group surveyed (15 to 24) had clicked on an ad. College graduates (71 percent) are more likely than those with a high school education or less (59 percent) to have clicked on an ad in the past six months.

What made customers click on ads? Most often, it was because the ad either showed a product they were already interested in (39 percent) or sparked their interest in a product they hadn’t previously considered (39 percent).

What kept customers from clicking on ads? The reasons varied depending on age and gender, but in general, the top two reasons were that the ad wasn’t relevant or that they didn’t trust it.

Surprisingly, users aged 25 to 44 were the least trusting age group. Nearly one-fifth (18 percent) didn’t trust online ads in general; nearly one-quarter (24 percent) were worried about getting a computer virus from clicking on ads. Another reason younger users and men gave for not clicking on ads was that they didn’t want to navigate away from their current page.

Both users ages 25 to 44 and users ages 44 to 54 were significantly more likely to mistrust ads than those ages 55 and up. Most consumers 55 years and older did not click on ads predominantly for fear of viruses, spam or for lack of desire to navigate off their current page.

Both the oldest and youngest user groups were significantly more likely to say that they didn’t notice online ads. In particular, a whopping 28 percent of consumers ages 15 to 24 said they didn’t notice the ads, suggesting this age group is desensitized to online advertising.

If you think online advertising makes sense primarily for younger age groups, this study should give you something to think about. And even if your ads don’t make users click, they could have other influences that move customers along the buying cycle.

Image Courtesy: Karen Axelton

This entry was posted on Thursday, October 13th, 2011 at 6:00 am and is filed under Branding, Marketing, sales process, Small Business, small business, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.


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