Firefox browser users less likley to click on sponsored links

CNET reports Firefox users are more likely to ignore online ads than other Internet users. This means law firm Internet marketing is going to need to focus more on getting higher rankings in the organic search results than on running Google AdWords and Overture sponsored links for Yahoo and MSN. Firefox users may represent 10% of net users within a year.

A report last week from Adtech, a German advertising technology company, said Internet Explorer users are at least four times as likely to click on Web ads than Firefox users.

There’s likely two reasons for this, both acknowledged in the CNET article. One, sophisticated net users look to the organic results, as opposed to ads, when looking for a product or service. This is supported by reports that MSN users (less sophisticated & newer to net) are twice as likely to click on a sponsored link as Google users. Second, Firefox does not allow for pop up ads.