What You Have in Mind

Just noticed this ad on YouTube, which I though warranted some public attention.  A girl looks to be about 15 asks, invitingly “Wanna get me drunk?”

I found this ad to be a little bit ethically problematic. So what did I do? I clicked on it to see what lay on the other side.  Alas, there’s some damn effective advertising…that is, as long as this ad isn’t CPC.  Turns out, fubar is an virtual cantina with–gasp–no drinking age limit.  That is to say, it is a cleverly skinned mainstream social networking site.

Usually, you can tell that an online ad is not running an a cost-per-click basis when its content is absurd salacious, or otherwise destined to attract a flurry of very speculative clicks. If your ad is CPM or CPA, there is no harm in eliciting impulsive clicks from anyone impulsive or curious enough to give it a click just because “eh, what the hell”. Consider the now-famous “Fart Button” ad.

Think of all the clicks this must get on a ‘tween gaming site (it was my 12-year-old cousin who first brought this glorious advertisement to my attention). After all, even if you’re not a fart fan, per se, the ad speaks to you: “you know you want to”. Who knows what lies behind the fart button, but who really cares? It’s a fart button. Click.
However, if you’re buying CPC ads, you should watch out with ads like this. You don’t want to get charged individually for all those fart-fancying clicks by people who probably don’t want whatever you’re selling. (Flatulence?)  There is a common misconception that click-throughs are inherently beneficial to an ad campaign, and that click-through rate is a stat to be monitored.  This is simply not the case for a PPC campaign.  Still, I think these ads can be effective, because they engage people, and some fraction of those people will be in the target market.  And, when you’re running CPM ads and hoping to get traffic, lewd, lascivious, and absurd may be just the way to go.