Contextual Advertising

I got an email from a friend of mine this afternoon who read an article stating that contextual ads generally deliver a lower ROI that pay-per-click ads and wanted to know my opinion on the subject. I actually agree with the article. Contextual ads generally have a lower ROI because these ads tend to be clicked on by visitors who are in a different stage of the buying cycle. Some of these visitors may not even be interested in purchasing a product at all. On the other hand, pay-per-click ads are more often clicked on by visitors who are in fact interested in purchasing a product. Many of these visitors may still be in the research phase, but they more often have a purchase in mind. The key point here is the intent of the visitor clicking on the ad, and in my opinion, the pay-per-click visitor is one step ahead in the buying process.