As I was checking out my google adsense report, I wondered about who clicked on ads on my blog, and who clicked on ads online in general?

My initial hypothesis :

Who usually click on ads?
- A large population of people who clicks on ads are those who are not very internet savvy. They click on ads because they don't know that they are ads.
- Kids and senior citizens. For the same reason as above.
- People who have a lot of time to spare.

When do people clicks on ads voluntarily?
- When ads don't look like ads.
- When ads look convincing or interesting enough.
- When there are interactive elements in it. For example, you are more likely to click on a flash ad which asks you to spot differences between two images and click 'Next' than a plain looking ad with a picture of a product.
- When ads are relevant to your life style and your interests.

And there are some interesting facts about ad-clickers...

Who are these “heavy clickers”? They are predominantly female, indexing at a rate almost double the male population. They are older. They are predominantly Midwesterners, with some concentrations in Mid-Atlantic States and in New England. What kinds of content do they like to view when they are on the Web? Not surprisingly, they look at sweepstakes far more than any other kind of content. Yes, these are the same people that tend to open direct mail and love to talk to telemarketers.
(Source: Outing The Heavy Clickers)

Digging a bit deeper, it's intereting to look at the click through rate (CTR) for various sources. Here's where the numbers get interesting. It seems that AOL and MSN users are more likely to click. Ask.com users aren't far behind. Yahoo is in third place with Google trailing by a fair amount.
(Source: Following the Search Engine Referral Money Trail)

Wealthier users are more likely to spend money online, but they are less likely to click on ads. Poorer users are more likely to click on ads, but not likely to spend money online except in a few verticals.
(Source: Who clicks on ads? (Revisited with data))

Heavy clickers skew towards Internet users between the ages of 25-44 and households with an income under $40,000. Heavy clickers are also relatively more likely to visit auctions, gambling, and career services sites - a markedly different surfing pattern than non-clickers.
(Source: New Study Shows that Heavy Clickers Distort Reality of Display Advertising Click-Through Metrics)

[tags]ads, advertising, studies, ppc, banners, advertisements[/tags]