To expand online reach, every business allocates budgets for online marketing. To get a quick and high level of visibility online most of these businesses and marketers think that online ads can give a good return on marketing investment. The fact of the matter is opposite to their expectations. I personally don’t allow ads to interrupt my browsing and always close them without a second thought. Taking the interest of the businesses towards online ads and the phenomenon of ad blocking makes the topic more interesting to select it for this blog post.
Today, a user spends more time on their mobile devices for browsing and this happens mostly when the user is on the go. Today, desktops and laptops are used to do specific jobs; may be buying a product selected on their mobile device or replying to office emails. At times if one or more ads start disrupting the user they get annoyed. Having such an experience from the user, it is debatable either there is any future of the online ads or the era of online ads is about to finish?
How online browsers feel about Ads today?
It is important to note that either all ads are disrupting or there are only some ads? What are the views of the online browsers about the online ads in general? In a survey of 1,055 online browsers in the US and the Europe, the most intruding ads are pop-up ads, mobile ads and video ads. The other fact is also very interesting, these users only like magazine ads; online and print and the rest of the ads they liked are TV ads which are as favourable.
The words used for the online ads is the warning point as are called “online offenders”. At least it is the worst name to my understanding for the online ads.
What caused you to click on an online ad?
The next phase of the survey was to find out what are most disliked things about all the disrupting ads? The experience was eye-opening as the most frustrating ads are the full page pop-up adverts. This is not the end of the experience as the other part makes the users annoyed when user need to find “X” to close the advert. More generally, 91% of respondents agree ads are more intrusive today compared to two to three years ago. The most disruption about the online ads and their presentation is they are forced to clicked.
The other opinion about the online ads is, “they are not created intellectually”. I am speechless! To me it needs online marketers to be intellectual in reality.
What’s the latest technology used by advertisers for online ads?
The next development that started in recent past is advertisers started asking online browsers if they would like to have an update from the site they are visiting. Yes, I “Allow” a site to show the updates and was happy as it will help me to find more like a like product of my choice. But what happened? The advertiser used to use the site to get an “Allow” from me and then started showing many ads under the umbrella of that one “Allow”. HUH! It hurt me a lot and make me curious about all the sites even the most famous one as well.
For me, it was like I am watched!
How browsers react to online ads?
In reaction to the intrusive ads, browsers discuss with each other about their personal experience and then end up to find a better ad blocker. Ad blockers are not so popular in itself but having a disruptive experience make them more likeable by the intrusive users. 41% of ad blockers are found through the word of mouth.
During the survey when asked to the browsers to let all the stones unturned following facts make the picture more clear;
- Ads are annoying and intrusive (64%)
- Ads are disruptive (54%)
- Ads create security concerns (39%)
- Ads affect load time and bandwidth usage (36%)
Conclusion for the online ads and the best alternate
You would be thinking of having the user experience of the online browsers, it seems that the future of online ads is at the end. Believe me, using ads to promote your business can even get your business at the darker side. It is a huge responsibility of the advertisers to take care of the user experience rather force them to click on an online ad to collect huge revenues. To the businesses, it is very important to only focus ads that are absorbable by the prospect rather they start hating your brand for a reason to disrupt them again and again.
To businesses, it is important to allocate more marketing budget for the content that is to help the customer rather intrude them. A content that can resolve the problems of your customers will be more demanded as well as retain your customers around your brand. Believe it, a content that helps your prospect will be spread by themselves. Blogger outreach is the most beneficial way to spend your marketing budget as blogs are the most absorbable content type which can stand your brand and can let your earn more revenue. It is the best alternative instead of spending more time with advertisers.
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