ING Direct (USA) is a large online advertiser. And because I frequently click on financial ads, I’m sure they are served to me far more than the average Jo(e). Still, the placement of ING Direct’s ad today at Amazon.com surprised me.

First, I’m not sure I realized that Amazon had turned over that much homepage real estate to third-party advertisers. It must be lucrative. Second, how does it pencil out for ING Direct? That has to be an expensive ad. How many 1% deposits do you have to get to cover those acquisition costs?

Amazon homepage (17 March 2011, 5 PM PDT, Seattle IP)

Landing page (link)
Note: While I like online video for sales support, the length of this 2.5 minute video on how to open a savings account seems a little excessive.

Off topic: ING’s St. Patrick’s Day graphic
ING Direct’s homepage today placed its orange ball in a pot ‘o gold — a nice touch — but I was slightly disappointed they didn’t animate the ball jumping into the pot. Clicking the pot took users to the bank’s We The Savers blog, with the greeting,”Top o’ the mornin’ to you, Saver.”