Since launching Fanpop earlier this summer, I’ve had the good fortune to see much more of the web than I have in a long time (courtesy of the Fanpop 100). Sharing my own discoveries with other fans as well as checking out those recommended by my peers has been thoroughly enjoyable. It has also taught me a little more about what makes a good site and - perhaps more importantly - it has reminded me what makes for a bad, bad, bad website. As a result, I’ve become even more acutely aware of the things that really, really piss me off as an end-user.
I could write a long treatise on what makes for a bad web experience, but for this article I just want to focus on advertising strategies that are a complete turn-off to users. Now I know that advertising is a necessary part of the web, so don’t jump on me for being anti-advertising. I’m not. But I am a staunch advocate for user-centric product design. For me, the rules of user-centric advertising are pretty clear. Here are the advertising tenets I like to live by (along with some corollaries):
- Advertising should not upset user expectations.
- Advertising is not content.
- Advertising should not hijack user navigation.
- Advertising should not create confusion.
- The amount of advertising should be proportionate to the benefit received by the user.
- Advertising should target your users appropriately.
- Advertising must never directly jeopardize your traffic.
In order to properly explain these rules, let’s just jump into the online strategies that scream “screw you, user!” and violate one or more of the above tenets (I’m gonna completely skip the much reviled pop-up and pop-under, because the conventional wisdom on those is pretty much established)
In no particular order…
1. Ads in RSS Feeds
This one gets my blood boiling. It really does. Advertisements should not be in RSS feeds. Why, you ask? Simply put, it violates all four of my advertising tenets above.
- Advertising is not content. RSS feeds are effectively data feeds. When one makes use of a data feed, one expects pure, unadulterated information.
- Advertising in feeds is confusing. The benefit of RSS is its ability to aggregate multiple sources so that you can scan through massive amounts of data quickly. Interspersing advertising into a feed can undermine the efficiency of RSS consumption (even when the advertisements are properly called out).
- RSS content feeds are already providing a real benefit to the syndicator in the form of traffic. Incorporating ads into the feed tips the value equation firmly in the favor of the advertiser.
- RSS tends to be used by power users, early adopters and avid internet consumers Do you really want to antagonize these users?
2. “Pre-roll” Ads on Short Video Clips
Pre-roll ads are video spots that run BEFORE a video you requested is presented to you. Here are my problems with them.
- You really can’t justify forcing me to watch a 15-second clip in order to see a 60-second piece of content after it. Not when all that’s waiting for me is a low-resolution clip with bad sound and only semi-entertaining content. For my money, clips under 3 minutes long aren’t worth a 15-30 second pre-roll ad. Give me a 30-minute high-quality program and I’ll change my tune.
- I’ve got alternatives. Case in point: I don’t bother with Battlestar Galactica clips on SciFi.com anymore because they employ this tactic. I can’t stand it. The BSG webisodes were what, 2 minutes long and mostly just “meh”. Did I really want to sit through an advertisement before the program began? Hell no. So instead, I just looked for the clip on YouTube (which thankfully did not implement pre-roll ads).
- This kind of advertising completely puts your traffic at risk. Am I going to browse around and experiment with new, unknown content as much? Am I gonna bother to watch that 30-second clip of a cat dancing on its hind-feet (and was only rated 2-stars by your users) knowing I have to endure a 15-second advert? Moreover, am I gonna bother embedding that clip on my blog knowing my audience will be subjected to the same? Doubtful.
3. Big Ass Splash Pages
Hard to believe that large, legitimate websites still use these, but they do. In fact, my former employer makes extensive use of them (1up.com).
Splash pages violate most of the above tenets.
- When I punch your url into my browser’s address bar, I want your site, your content, not a page that is exclusively devoted to an advertisement or splashy marketing material.
- The advertiser/user benefit ratio is totally skewed when it comes to splash pages. I mean, literally, you are giving the user ZERO, nothing, nada. The site owner and/or advertiser, reaps ALL of the benefit on the initial page load. Frankly, when I see something like this, my first inclination is to hit the home button on my browser and start over. Honestly folks, when you see this tactic an alarm in your head needs to go off and say: “This site wasn’t made for users, this site was made for advertisers. I’m outta here!”. Seriously. Users deserve better. Advertisers, don’t get me wrong, making money is a great thing but you don’t need to go about it so shamelessly.
- Finally, not only does a splash page put your traffic at risk (why risk getting people through the front door to your site, of all places!) but it also could jeopardize your SEO by obstructing the search engine spiders crawling your site (check out this recent SEOMoz article on this very subject).
4. Inline Keyword Advertising
Ever see those obnoxious double-underlined, hyperlinked words in news articles that also launch pop-ups when you hover over them? (Here’s an example) If so, you’ve enjoyed the wonders of IntelliTXT, Kontera, Adbrite and other companies with similar services that allow content-rich sites to sell keywords IN their articles and news stories.
This type of advertising sucks in so many ways it’s hard to keep count.
- First, the blurring between content and advertisement is completely breached. The only signifier that the link is an ad is for those aware enough to know that the double-underline represents “advertisement”.
- Secondly, these ads completely mess with user expectations about hyperlinks. The general expectation is that a hyperlink within an article will take me to more information about that article, not launch me into a sales pitch.
- Don’t even get me started on the mouseover popups…
5. News articles totally obscured by advertising
You know what I’m talking about (here’s a perfect example of this phenomenon); the news article that looks like spam, the article that doesn’t start until you scroll down below the two large rectangle ads, thhe news article that is scrunched off onto the side of the page and is forced to awkwardly word-wrap around a constant flow of boxy ad units.
I hate them too.
Ads within articles might perform well with some users, but they also run the risk of totally interfering with the readability of the content. Ensuring that your site looks like a big spam-topia is certainly not the kind of impression you want to leave your users with.
These are the advertising tactics that totally piss me off as a user and (often) send me packing for another site. I’m sure there are other obnoxious advertising tactics out there (and who knows, maybe we are inadvertently doing some of them on Fanpop - I certainly hope not though). Feel free to add yours to the comments section below.
For more information on web design, advertising and web marketing feel free to peruse the following Spots on Fanpop: