6 Reasons Readers Don't Click Your Ads and What to Do about It

Busted!

Last night I did something that I found curious. Here’s what happened.

I was writing a piece and I needed to think. To get some space, I put the idea on hold, while I clicked over to check my stats. I’d hardly started, when a comment came in on Successful-Blog. I went back to talk about the Jolly Green wearing PayPerPost on his chest.

That done, I returned to my stats, but the window was partly covered.

By accident I clicked on an ad!

Oh no! Not that! Busted!

Someone Already Knew

The second the ad came up, I automatically looked away. NO! I’m not an ad clicker. No, no no! I needed out of there right away!

I looked around for a witness to my reckless clicking. No one here saw. Still I knew Some place, somewhere, in some stats, someone already had tracked me there.

Then I had an epiphany. Okay, I woke up.

What Was I Thinking?

What was this self-imposed ad rule about? It doesn’t cost me to click an ad, and yet for some reason, I think it’s smarter to check the website and go there direct. Talk about taking the long way home. WHY? Suddenly I had that and three more reasons to break my rule.

Clicking an ad doesn’t cost me anything.
It’s easier to get to where I might want to go.
The advertiser wants to know what brought me.
Some ads offer something I need or I could use.

So what was I thinking up to now?

Reasons I Didn’t Click Ads

Last night, I stopped myself from leaving to look at the ad I had landed on. I saw that had I gotten there via a link from a friend, I might have called that service a GREAT FIND.

Here’s that epiphany . . . I was missing out by not clicking ads. It was time to reconsider my no ad behavor. It was time to ask Why do I avoid clicking ads with a passion? Here’s what I found. I don’t click ads because . . .

I believe the product or service won’t be what’s advertised.
I don’t have time to check out new things.
I know that ad click makes me a statistic in a metrics report.
Ads placed where I have to navigate to avoid them, have led me to feel that if I click it will make me a sheep who got caught.
My focus is earning to pay off a university, not spending on stuff I didn’t know I want.
Recent talk of click fraud makes me feel creepy.

Think about it. Do you avoid clicking ads as a hard and fast rule? Do different kinds of ads bring a different kind of response? Is there a time or a product that will get you to seek out ads to click?

What can you do?

The best way to change another person’s behavior is to change your own. Why not you offer readers information to let them decide whether they want to change clicking rules?

You can’t and shouldn’t ask readers to click your ads — a blog is about helping not hyping — but you can make a page that lets readers know your advertising strategy and where they fit in the mix. An Advertising Page can

Explain your overall ad strategy.
Describe how that strategy is in keeping with your brand.
Let readers know how you chose the ad programs you did.
Underscore how you considered their needs in your choices.
Explain how each product or ad program works and why you offer it.

By sharing the how, what, and why that you’ve planned and considered, you can let readers know that the ads you put are worth checking out. It’s one more way of showing that everything that you do has customers at the center.

A page like that is a great resource for other bloggers, as well. Simply the act of building an ad strategy page brings your own thoughts back to how well your choices serve your readers, your business, and your brand.

What have we done lately to make our customers, our clients, our readers life easier? Everything we do always comes back to that.

— ME “Liz” Strauss