Seth Godin Infuriates Internet Marketers
By Anna Johnson on August 25th, 2008Seth Godin has just lost the respect of hundreds, maybe thousands, of Internet marketers worldwide.
His recent blog post, “Ads are the new online tip jar” is surely one of the dumbest posts I’ve ever seen from an esteemed marketing “guru” such as Mr Godin, and reflects a total and utter misunderstanding of the economics of online advertising. And perhaps of the purpose of advertising in general.
In his post, Seth Godin recommends people click on online ads they like. He suggests this as a way of saying “thanks”.
Let’s see, as someone paying to have my ads displayed on the Internet, do I want people to:
1. Click on my ad to say “thanks”?
or
2. Buy my product?
Furthermore, do I want loads of people saying “thanks” for the nice ad… and thereby distort the performance metrics associated with my ad?
And last but not least, do I want to PAY people to click on my ads to say “thanks”. ‘Cause if I’m running a pay-per-click campaign (whether it’s on Google Adwords or elsewhere) that’s what I’ll be doing.
The sentiment of asking people who appreciate online ads to tip advertisers is fine and dandy, but apart from making advertisers pay for others’ “kindness”, it also reflects a misunderstanding of what advertising is all about.
Advertising is NOT art. It doesn’t exist to look nice or entertain. It may do those things. Those things may be a by-product or even be intended.
But the main aim of advertising is to get people to take ACTION. To read something, sign up for something, and ultimately to BUY something.
Seth Godin… what were you thinking?
Source: Seth Godin, “Ads are the new online tip jar”, Seth Godin, August 22, 2008
August 25th, 2008 at 3:19 pm
Well said Anna. To say that contextual ads, ppc or any ads for that matter are a vehicle to express gratitude or to give a “pat on the back” for the content, sort of goes against the grain and the very purpose for advertisers choosing to pay for clicks as you eloquently stated.
Knowing that Seth Godin sees the big picture, I’m also curious to see his response for making this suggestion.
The only possible reasoning I see would be that perhaps encouraging “risk free” clickthroughs would also increase sales from clickers who didn’t intend to buy originally from the click but were compelled by a particularly great offer and ended up buying from the advertisers afterall.
It’s kind of ironic that what seems like Seth Godin’s effort to be sympathetic to internet marketers who are getting paid for the gratuitous clickthroughs, actually infuriated internet marketers because of the “biting the hand that feeds them” big picture consequences that could result.
While there is nothing wrong with the desire to “tip” those who are consistently providing helpful and insightful content, why not recommend that they also take action and purchase an item as a tip as well?
That would seem to be the solution and true win-win-win reconciliation and perhaps what he had in mind
originally.
Great stuff as usual Anna!
August 30th, 2008 at 4:03 am
he has always been dumb, manipulative, and a scammer, in his work. you are late to the party. intuition could have told you all you need to know about him in about 2003. enjoy, gregory