

Ask YC:  Who is most likely to click on ads without even knowing they are ads? - amichail

It seems that building a service that attracts people of this type could be quite profitable.
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rrival
This was just released Feb 12th:
<http://www.smvgroup.com/news_popup_flash.asp?pr=1643>

"The study illustrates that heavy clickers represent just 6% of the online
population yet account for 50% of all display ad clicks. While many online
media companies use click-through rate as an ad negotiation currency, the
study shows that heavy clickers are not representative of the general public.
In fact, heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44
and households with an income under $40,000. Heavy clickers behave very
differently online than the typical Internet user, and while they spend four
times more time online than non-clickers, their spending does not
proportionately reflect this very heavy Internet usage. Heavy clickers are
also relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services
sites – a markedly different surfing pattern than non-clickers. "

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r7000
some further food for thought:

[http://weblogs.hitwise.com/us-heather-
hopkins/2008/02/yahoo_...](http://weblogs.hitwise.com/us-heather-
hopkins/2008/02/yahoo_search_draws_younger_aud.html)

random blog with some thoughts:

[http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2008/02/16/who_cli...](http://www.zephoria.org/thoughts/archives/2008/02/16/who_clicks_on_a_1.html)

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thomasswift
I think most yc'ers know the different ad schemes and actively decide if they
are going to click on them, provided they even see it because they aren't
using adblock.

I think standard joe user will click on ads if they think it will get them to
'destination', which is why I think text links are very successful in creating
the idea that the ad(link) is just another page within a website.

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amichail
Yes, but who is most likely to do this among the joe users?

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thomasswift
you could make a game out it? People watch tv show about commercials, with
commercials in between. So i guess I'm clueless.

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rms
The very young and the very old

I saw this cited in a study years ago, it's out there somewhere

