By 
A new survey conducted by Pontiflex and Harris Interactive has tallied up a result that more than is expected: 47 percent of the 4000 users they surveyed said ad clicks occurred accidentally. Shrinking the age parameter to the 18-34 bracket, the number rises to 61 percent.
This figure shouldn’t do anything to cause ad executives to reconsider their method of deployment. Rather, it affirms something they more often than not attempt to accomplish purposefully. Come one, you don’t really think the placement of ads in Angry Birds wasn’t done to intentionally encourage accidental click-throughs?
[via EuroDroid]
This isn’t shocking at all. I have only ever clicked a mobile ad by accident LOL.
Me too.
Me too, I would expect the number to be MUCH higher. Sooo much easier to click the wrong thing with a finger than a mouse by accident!
Same here. Unless the ads were for something local, and by local I mean me driving by Chick-Fil-A and it showing an ad for it, then I could care less about them. I’m not going to click an ad and try to view it the page on my phone anyway.
Oh, and it probably doesn’t help that many of them make the X to close the ads so tiny that it’s nearly impossible to hit it, and you hit the ad instead.
me2!
File this under “well duh”.
Yep. I’ve never intentionally clicked on an ad. But boy have I accidentally clicked. Angry Birds… grrr…. the ad placement makes me VERY angry. When it obstructs game play, that’s when I’m annoyed.
here is a better question… why are 56 percent of people INTENTIONALLY clicking ads???? who the fuck does that?
I’m thinking that number is a bit low.
I have an ad blocker and have not seen ads for the last 3 months. That is why love my Droooooooiiiiddddd!
@Covert
Could of been said a lot differently, but agreed LOL.
Never have I accidently clicked on an ad. I do intentionally for movie trailers or stuff to do around the area.. like sky diving! :)
If any product bothers me with a Ad , I don’t buy that product , TV or phone Ads don’t work , people just ignore Ads anymore , the sponsors waste money , I don’t know who compiles the data about Ads and how effective they are , but the are padding the numbers quite a bit .
ADS DON’T WORK , STOP THE ADS , THEY ARE ONLY ANNOYING AND BOTHERSOME AT BEST !!!!!!!!!!!!
No, half of *users* have clicked on ads accidentally at least once. That’s not the same thing as half of ad impressions being clicked on accidentally. It’s not as bad as it sounds.
Off topic but people sure like complaining about the ads. The accedental clicks are getting the developers paid.. so, that poor placement of the ad in angry birds is whats going to keep it free and keep the updates rolling on.
@len id rather pay for angry birds then have ads
same, i have said from day one, let me pay for angry birds and no ads
@Covert – those click on AD those who don’t have access to paid market, but feel like they should support developer somehow. Like I do.
Sometimes the apps get sneaky and replace a frequently clicked on button or option with the ad. That’s the only reason I ever clicked one.
And whats up with the AdMob ads saying “Evesdrop on anyone’s cellphone calls…”
Angry birds is bad but others are worse. Slideit is the worst I’ve seen?
Clickjacking.
@LH, I came here to say the same thing, half of users click ads by accident. However, we don’t know how bad it is. Think about it, if on average each game player clicks .25 links per game. And, on average 47% of gamers (some of which have clicked a link on purpose in the previous figure) click a link by accident once per game, we can see more ads are accidentally clicked than purposefully clicked.
So, we don’t know the true ratio of intention clicks to accidental clicks.
well, duh. I mean who actually wants to interrupt their game of whatever to be sold some garbage they have no interest in? I’m surprised 1/3 of the clicks were actually intentional. lol
I don’t believe I’ve ever touch any annoying ads intentionally.
I uninstall apps IMMEDIATELY that have ads, and search out old versions that do not have them. Sorry if that doesn’t “support the dev” (as everyone loves to say). If “devs” dont offer a paid, ad free version that I can buy, alternative to the free, “ad supported” version, then that’s revenue right off the bat that they aren’t getting from me. Ads are annoying, intrusive, and just plain look CHEAP. Make something that people want/need, put a respectable/competitive price on it, and it will sell.
What difference does it make? If you are accidentally clicking on the ad, it doesn’t mean you are reaching your target market (that they are actually reading the ad/link) it means someone is paying for something that isn’t really doing what they think it is. Kind of like the warnings and previews on the Blu Ray where you can’t forward through because they lock out the forward button, that’s when I make my popcorn and get a cold drink. I am simply tired of constant bombardment of ads. I pay for XM radio and listen to channels that don’t have ads (well the raw comedy does, but that just a good time to listen to another non-ad channel). Terrestrial radio is nothing more than an Ad-channel now and I think Google is out of control with the size and quality of ads.
I recently setup a Droid X where a business owner could view his security cameras on an app. He didn’t have the market setup so I downloaded the lite version to get him going. Really nice to show an app and have a “Find Girls local to you” appear on the screen.
I got rooted my incredible recently (many months after buying it), and I am SO glad I did. Here are the reasons:
1. Ad Blocker
2. WiFi Tethering (free)
3. Back up app data
I will never go back!
This is first time that survey is 100% accurate
I click ads to help pay developers. It keeps apps free and makes big companys pay for my applications.