Google’s text ads work something along these lines:
You submit your link and keywords you’d think are related to what you’re advertising. When a person searches that term on google, your ad will sometimes show up on the right margin column (for free). If a person clicks on the link though, you’ll be charged for each click.
So what happens when someone like me comes along?
I see a AdSense text ad that interests me, but rather than click the link, I’ll type in the URL myself, or search the company in google.
Why do I do this? Isn’t that just extra work on my part, and not costing me anything either way? Well… yeah. But should a company have to pay from my click when I can say with some certainty that I’m not going to be buying their product? I’m just explorer shopping afterall.
It deprives Google part of what makes up their main source of revenue, so who am I helping and who am I hurting?
I can’t really help this behaviour though. I virtually _never_ click on links. Partly because I’m not really certain I’ll be navigating to a website I’d like to go to, but mostly because I’d rather not support intrusive online advertising. If online advertising stops becoming effective, then maybe I can read a Slate article or see what the current press release that IGN is regurgitating without being bombarded by several thousand ads and Flash popups.
It’s funny that I make exceptions to click links on personal pages of sites I thoroughly enjoy, the ones that partly live off their advertising revenues. So this is where this ethical confusion leaves me. Should I continue to click links though not interested in the service/product it is marketing, or does that make me a complete hypocrite.
At what point does an exception become a total violation of one’s personal belief system? But then again, I could definately make the same argument over any social cause I support. It really makes me question every action I take. Spookay stuff.
I was thinking along these lines earlier on, when google goes public, do you think shareholders could all devote some time each day to clicking google adlinks? I mean, even a few links a day by each shareholder could make a sizeable differece, couldn’t it?
I was trying to think about a similar scenario in another field, where owners of the company could easily gain revenue without any real expense on their part. I couldn’t really find it.