Has anyone here ever actually clicked on an ad and bought something?

[bignateyk]

I don't get how advertising is such a big money maker. Not once in my life have I clicked on an ad and bought something. Never have I bought something from a SPAM email. I have never seen an ad on TV and thought "I like that, I think i'll get that". But yet spam, online ads, tv ads are billion, if not trillion dollar industries. Who the hell is actually responding to ads?

If I want something, I look it up and find reviews of similar products, and pick the one that customer reviews are best for. Then I look for the cheapest store or online retailer I can find it at.

The only way I can really see advertising affecting me is subliminally. Like product placement type ads, but lately I have been noticing those more and more, and if I notice that something is product placement, I usually get turned off by it.

Any consumer whores here who actually click on ads and buy stuff?

 

[Crono]

Never.

 

[bignateyk]

Is it the older generations who buy shit from ads? Internet newbs and grannies? Soccer moms responding to infomercials?

 

[Riverhound777]

Never from an internet ad or spam, but yes on TV commercials.

 

[WraithETC]

I've bought a foreman grill and nu wave oven, but I never get it directly from the ad.

 

[allisolm]

Never.

+1

 

[Crono]

For TV ads it's more about brand awareness. If you have at least heard of a company by way of TV, you are more likely to choose it versus an unknown brand.

 

[bignateyk]

I'm trying to think back through the years. I'd say 99% of my thought out purchases come as a result of consumer reviews or recommendations.

Impulse buys are usually just from window shopping.

I guess maybe ads have affected my spending just by flooding my brain with that product. Just by simply making me aware of its existence I might be more likely to buy it than if I had never seen the ad.

 

[soulcougher73]

Never. I dont click them in the first place either. Waste of space and money in my opinion.

 

[bonkers325]

no. its about brand recognition. if i want to buy memory, i'll remember all the crucial ads on these forums and will recognize the brand. i'm more likely to buy them if i'm not too knowledgeable about memory.

 

[SP33Demon]

Progressive has actually made me hate that company for flooding the airwaves with that stupid btch.

 

[Aharami]

only times that I recall are going to stores after seeing an ad for some sort of sale. Like Old Navy was having a 30% sale one weekend and after seeing that ad, I went out just to go to Old Navy

 

[dank69]

Anytime I see boob pics I instinctively click them. If something pops up asking for financial or CC info I always fill it all out in the hopes that I might get to see more boobs.

 

[Aharami]

Progressive has actually made me hate that company for flooding the airwaves with that stupid btch.

oh man how can you not love Flo?!

 

[Cogman]

nope. Most people don't. The thing is. if 0.01% click and buy something, then all the sudden the ad has earned back the cost to deploy.

 

[AyashiKaibutsu]

For TV ads it's more about brand awareness. If you have at least heard of a company by way of TV, you are more likely to choose it versus an unknown brand.

Same with all ads. Being able to click on it and buy it right there is just an added bonus for internet ads.

 

[MJinZ]

I don't get how advertising is such a big money maker. Not once in my life have I clicked on an ad and bought something. Never have I bought something from a SPAM email. I have never seen an ad on TV and thought "I like that, I think i'll get that". But yet spam, online ads, tv ads are billion, if not trillion dollar industries. Who the hell is actually responding to ads?

If I want something, I look it up and find reviews of similar products, and pick the one that customer reviews are best for. Then I look for the cheapest store or online retailer I can find it at.

The only way I can really see advertising affecting me is subliminally. Like product placement type ads, but lately I have been noticing those more and more, and if I notice that something is product placement, I usually get turned off by it.

Any consumer whores here who actually click on ads and buy stuff?

Correct - subliminal is what they are going for. When the brand name and product is embedded in your psyche, you are more likely to buy it over a no-name brand, more likely to research it down the road in comparisons, more likely to have an impression of it based on the commercial itself, etc.

I have never bought anything from clicking on ads directly, but I can definitely say some ads have indirectly led me to buy things like:

Toothpaste - I looked for Aquafresh because of some claims they made, but I decided to keep using it because it comes in a stand-up bottle instead of a tube. Hah, laziness for the win.

Contact Lenses - led me to try Acuvue Oasys when I was using something else at the time (Acuvue 2 I think). Oasys > ALL.

Now, ads like Mac vs PC are definitely ingrained in people's psyches when they go to make a purchase or investigate the product. Car advertisements are similar in producing an image of a lifestyle they want the consumer to emulate.

 

[darkxshade]

Not ads for specific products but I have made purchases from ads for specific retailers... especially spam emails that offer coupon codes for % off.

I'd say 99% of my thought out purchases come as a result of consumer reviews or recommendations.

Consumer review/recommendation sites are in essense ads though aren't they? They may not be your vanilla flash banner ad but you see a product with great reviews and they're usually accompanied by a list of online retailers. Most times, amazon is among them so I automatically just click and buy while giving the review site its due. The site gets a cut from the retailer[Amazon in my case]... so at its core, it's still an ad.

 

[Anubis]

never, im the type of person that spends countless hours reading and researching about thing i buy, normally to come up with the best value at the given pricepoint i can. Ive never made a spur of the moment purchase on anything ive seen on TV or an add. most likely because i rarely if ever buy anything i don't actually need

 

[MJinZ]

Not ads for specific products but I have made purchases from ads for specific retailers... especially spam emails that offer coupon codes for % off.



Consumer review/recommendation sites are in essense ads though aren't they? They may not be your vanilla flash banner ad but you see a product with great reviews and they're usually accompanied by a list of online retailers. Most times, amazon is among them so I automatically just click and buy while giving the review site its due. The site gets a cut from the retailer[Amazon in my case]... so at its core, it's still an ad.

Not really, if you have a good product, people will know. If you have a bad product, people will know. Review sites (good ones) are assessments of the products, not product pushers.

 

[Aharami]

never, im the type of person that spends countless hours reading and researching about thing i buy, normally to come up with the best value at the given pricepoint i can. Ive never made a spur of the moment purchase on anything ive seen on TV or an add. most likely because i rarely if ever buy anything i don't actually need

I'd say most people on thes forums are like that with bigger purchases like computer parts or electronics. But what about small things like toothpaste or toothbrush? Do you spend countless hours reading up on the best toothpaste? Do you buy the generic store brand over something like Crest?

 

[AMDZen]

Progressive has actually made me hate that company for flooding the airwaves with that stupid btch.

I'd agree except that they give me the best price on my insurance so i have them

 

[darkxshade]

Not really, if you have a good product, people will know. If you have a bad product, people will know. Review sites (good ones) are assessments of the products, not product pushers.

I didn't say they push products. They're not advertising the product, they're advertising the retailer. Say you have product X that has 9/10 rating. Somewhere on the site, it'll have a "buy this item" button which takes you to a list of retailers, or maybe a list of retailers is at the bottom, whatever. When you click on a retailer, the site gets paid a cut... if that's not a definition of an ad, then I don't know what is.

 

[daishi5]

I have. I bought some huge blank maps to use in a game, I think it was from gamingpaper.com or something close to that. Normally I ignore internet ads, but this was something I actually wanted, and I saw the ad while I was trying to figure out someway to create a big map with my own printer.

 

[PingSpike]

I've clicked on some ads by accident before.