I would say that kind of ad works in a some ways. Kind of the same way as this:

http://decentcommunity.org/2008/05/15/making-love-with-the-help-of-gigantic-vats-of-grease/

It does until the point where the government comes down on you as they did in the case of Commission Junction.

Chris - I do have a book for you. Will bring it Friday. With these “free” things, you trade the free item for time - time to fill out the form, time to wade through ads and whatnot, time to respond to survey questions. Basically for a student with extra time and who makes ten bucks an hour it might be worth it. But not for those of us who have no time on our hands.

Does the actual ad work? To be honest, I’m not sure. Does it pique my curiosity and make me click? Definitely. That’s the goal, I think, and whoever is behind that ad is doing a good job at targeting the demographic that likes cool technological freebies.

Nobody trusts free. The only thing worse is when “Free” is in bold and red and followed by three exclamation marks.

There are always new people on the internet. New, unsuspecting bodies ripe for fleecing….

;)

I myself never click that kind of ads. :)

Spam wouldn’t exist if advertising like this didn’t work.

I’ve clicked on a few of those ads. Almost immediately you are asked for your email address. Then additional questions after additional questions about your interests, etc. Finally, after many pages like this, you give up.

They still have your email address. They still have a (partial) consumer profile. You still have nothing.

I don’t click on them any more.

I’m with Tamar. However, anytime I see the word “complete” as part of the ad, I feel that the reward is never worth the time.

What do you mean by work? The advertiser does get an ROI if they bid properly on this type of ad, if that’s what you were asking. There are enough Facebook users who bite on this.

and @James, that has nothing to do with this type of ad.