A few months ago, I was on a linux VM with no ad blocker and I got one of those banner ads about my Windows PC being attacked.

Being interested and having nothing better to do on a Saturday night I clicked it, got told my system was infected and to call a number for help.

I called the 800 number, got onto a representative who then attempted to get me to install a piece of software. I played along as the dumb consumer who just really to keep the viruses and hackers off his computer.

2 hours later with multiple service escalations, attempts to install a .exe and a .msi to a Ubuntu install, reboots, running windows commands in my terminal, giving fake credit card numbers (the kind generated to make sure your system can handle all credit cards) and me just acting plain dumb ended with me being hung up on.

I figure the 2 hours that they burned on me was one less poor soul they hooked in.

Yesterday. I'm on the hunt for a new guitar and I've been browsing various sites looking at them. On an unrelated forum there were one of those adverts which was a grid of 6 items the store sold plus store logo.

It got me to click because the guitar looked eye catching and I wanted to know more.

That's probably the first ad I've clicked in months.

Probably 18-24 months ago, before adding an ad blocker to my phone, when one got in my way while trying to scroll or the page jumped around during re-render when an ad image loaded and pushed the link I was about to tap out of the way.

Oh, wait, deliberately? 3-5 year ago, I'd guess.

I block ads and thus almost never see them. Even without ad blocking enabled...

A) they're rarely if ever relevant to me B) I'm too skeptical of advertising in general to believe a word of them C) when they are about something I'm researching to buy, they pretty much always suggest an item I've already eliminated from consideration for very good reasons D) I find ads too annoying to be willing to encourage their use by clicking on them

Maybe once every five years I'll see one that piques my curiosity enough that I just have to find out what's behind it.

I sometimes click on ads (sponsored links) on the Google search results page. Other than that, I'm fairly sure I've never intentionally clicked on an ad in 20+ years of web surfing. (But I'm probably forgetting a few clicks.)

Often while searching a book or other items on google, the item that I want is shown within an ad box on the right, and invariably found on the big river, but the 'ordinary' link to that item won't appear on the first page! I am a bit lazy to click on next page arrow, and also have no grudge against google to cause them a 'loss', so I say what the heck and click on the item. As to when, probably last week sometime.

The last one I clicked deliberately was from one of the meal kit startups on Facebook offering $40 off your first box. I'm opening to trying all of them at least once with a discount like that.

Besides that, in the past I've found The Deck ads (such as on marco.org) to be more relevant than most and I click them occasionally.

All the time. Demanding job + non-computer related hobbies limit my time to find new things I like.

I patronize websites that are for my demographic. I follow people that advertise things I like. They do the initial sourcing, then I do the research into whether or not I like that product.

Very occasionally (once a month?) Facebook will show me an ad that actually looks interesting enough to merit following it. Apart from that, I have an adblocker to keep the obnoxious stuff off my screen.

I've a personal account which is on a browser profile with ad blocking enabled and tracking disabled but on a different business profile I am keeping an eye on ads. I occasionally click them deliberately.

Mostly if I'm looking for new sport gear like running shoes I don't mind clicking on ads if I see a shoe I like.

And if a company is the top result and also shows up in the ads above I click on the ad.

I honestly can't say for certain that I've ever intentionally clicked on an ad.