Do you avoid ads when searching google?

[cludiepie]

I run a small Christmas gifting company and I have worked hard to rank number 1 for the specific thing I sell. The problem is my competitor has just bought ads so now they are the first hit on google with the ad. If you were looking to purchase something would you scroll past the ad to the first organic hit, or would you also look at the ads?

I tend to scroll past the ads to the other results 😊

I scroll past.

Now you mention it...I scroll past and avoid ads.

I avoid ads.

this is great to hear thank you so much

In fact it pisses me off when i put a search term in and ads come up that may be related but don't include the search term.

It depends what I'm searching for and what the top links are, if its a small independent business or something niche for my hobby, I'm more likely to click than if its something generic off Amazon.

Usually avoid ads. I feel like they will charge more to pay for their ads.

I also scroll past ads, make a point of never clicking on anything with ads and go straight to the specific thing I have googled. The ads piss me off.

I use Adblock so I never see the adverts. Why are so many people still not using ad blockers?

Always

I always did mostly avoid the ads anyway but DH has now put an ad blocker on everything so if I try and click on those top couple of results which are ads, then it just gives me an error message.

Drives me mad because sometimes, just occasionally I do actually want to click on those ads and can't. This is on all phones, tablets and PC so no way around it.

Yes I avoid ads too

thank you so much everyone, I felt a bit defeated when I checked this morning, its been a very challenging year, I now have renewed hope!

I scroll past too

Because nothing is free. If MN doesn't get revenue from ads it will either become subscription only or more likely just disappear.

OP I tend to scroll past adverts and use the main search terms because so often the ads seem to be scams.

Completely ignore the ads unless can’t find it anywhere else.

Because in the situation the OP is describing ad blockers have no effect. The search result for an ad on Google just shows it as a regular result, apart from the small 'Ad' at the front of it.

I scroll past even if it's something I want from Amazon. I don't want them to think they've lured me in with their paid for advertising. But in other cases I don't look at the first few results if they're ads. I reckon if their product/service is good enough they'll come pretty high up the list of search results anyway.

Buy dead grannies at Amazon. Get a good deal on dead grannies with Prime

no, thank you

Yes I avoid out of principle.

I scroll past adds and have taught non tech DH to do the same.

Always scroll past, and on Etsy too.

On right move I look at the promoted houses to see why they haven’t sold (what I’m looking for seems to be snapped up quickly)

Yes I skip them too, even if it is an ad for the company I have searched for!

I scroll down past the ads

If I'm buying something I tend to click the paid ads because I assume if someone is paying to be there, the page experience would usually be optimised and good.

Whereas the organic results are usually stuffed full of 'relevant' twaddle and are generally infuriating.