It is quite possible that Internet advertising has reached its saturation point.  The Wall Street Journal is reporting that data from research group comScore Inc. indicates that the number of paid-clicks on Google’s search ads has declined for the second consecutive month.  The consumer has become wise to advertising on the Web.  That’s not necessarily a bad thing.

Google maintains that the decline reflects the company’s efforts to improve the quality of leads, that they have made it more difficult for Web surfers to accidentally click on ads.  What  a great spin!  I agree that rather than curiosity clicks, the advertiser is getting more people who are truly interested in their product.  However, I find it difficult to swallow that Google intentionally wanted fewer clicks.  That’s how they make their money.

The spin to the story allows Google to charge more per click by assuming a more customers with fewer clicks.   But has the actual number of customers increased?  The number of customers can stay the same but because the curiosity clicks have declined, the percentage of customers to clicks would increase – that’s not more customers.  If Google increases the per click cost, you are paying more for each actual customer.

Advertisers need to stay focused on the brass ring.  Forget the number of clicks.  How many actual customers are coming through the Internet ads and how much did each customer cost versus other advertising.  Without knowing that, the number of clicks is really meaningless.