Heavy-Duty Ad Clickers Could Misguide Marketers

Some snippets from a great piece yesterday from the folks at The ClickZ Network. See the full article here: http://clickz.com/showPage.html?page=3628429

A study shows a disconnect between the number of clicks on ads, and the number of people behind the clicks. As a result, advertisers and marketers are advised to find ways other than clicks to optimize performance-based campaigns.

The report, "Natural Born Clickers," commissioned by Starcom and AOL's Tacoda and conducted by comScore, finds 16 percent of Internet users click on 80 percent of ads, and those people aren't representative of the general online population.

"Close to 70 percent of the online universe doesn't click at all," said Greg Rogers, VP of sales strategy at Tacoda.

Heavy clickers, classified as someone who clicks on an ad four or more times in a month, comprise six percent of the online population and 50 percent of the clicks. Moderate clickers, Internet users who click ads two to three times per month, account for 10 percent of the online population and the additional 30 percent of clicks.

Demographics behind the heavy clicker:

They are somewhat equally divided between male and female and between the ages 25 to 44.

The typical household income for heavy clickers is below $40,000.

Online, heavy clickers are also more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites.

"Heavy clickers spent five times more time online than a non-clicker, which to me is astounding," said Rogers. He suggested heavy clickers respond to ads more often because they're exposed to more ads.

Food for thought if a significant portion of your marketing programs include banner advertising.