There probably isn’t a single person on the Internet that isn’t bothered by a pop-up ad. The spectrum of pop-up dislike ranges from a mild annoyance to violent laptop throwing and screaming and while this isn’t a scientific measure it’s incredibly accurate.
It turns out that Google feels the same about pop-ups that we do which is good news for us because a new Chrome browser with a built-in pop-up blocker is rolling out.
While the search engine giant does make money from these ads it seems that user experience trumps profits (in this case at least) with 73% of users reporting they dislike online pop-ups. Another 70% responding they dislike ads on their mobile phone.
In an attempt to reduce the number of obnoxious ads Google has begun sending warning emails to websites that have “highly annoying, misleading or harmful” pop-ups based on the Coalition for Better Ads standards.
To keep up with these changes it’s a good idea to start a website wide ad re-evaluation with the first thing to scrap being pop-ups. However for an improved advertisement strategy consider other ads that are also getting on consumer’s nerves:
Desktop:
- Auto-playing video ads with sound
- Prestitial ads with countdown
- Large sticky ads
Mobile:
- Prestitial ads
- Ad density higher than 30%
- Flashing animated ads
- Autoplaying ads with sound
- Postitial ads with countdown
- Full-screen scroll over ads
- Large stick ads
While the Chrome update is yet to be rolled out it’s definitely time to start reconsidering your ad strategy before its too late.