If you been following this blog, you’ve doubtless read my initial post about using SiteTruth, which employs real-world methods to investigate online advertisers. Perhaps you’ve also read about the GreaseMonkey script that allows you to see the ratings of contextual advertisers right on the Web page in your browser. But are you wondering how many advertisers pass muster? Check out the pie chart to your left and read on for more details.
According to SiteTruth’s blog, over 35% of all ads could not be validated as a trustworthy business (red on the chart above), while fewer than 14% were judged green (site ownership and business identity verified). You can check out the blog for more details, but what does this mean?
Many ads that we see every day do not have enough information about the sites and the companies for customers to be confident about buying from them. Now, understand, we probably buy from these companies quite frequently. But we are taking our chances. If we were to really check out the site and investigate the company, we might be more aware that it’s a leap of faith. SiteTruth is just automating that investigation for us.
If you’re a marketer who is running search and contextual ads, you might want to check out your SiteTruth score. If this technology or a similar one comes into widespread usage, you don’t want to have that red mark slapped on your ad. Customers may be too lazy to check these things out now, but when someone puts it in their face with no effort, see if your click rate plummets.
