• by Jack Loechner , Staff Writer @mp_research, June 24, 2003

Pop-ups Annoy, But Generate Business

According to the Interactive Advertising Bureau and PricewaterhouseCoopers, reported by David Hallerman for eMarketer, interstitial ads gained only a 5.0% share of US online ad spending in 2002 and pop-ad ads, a type of interstitial, made up just 3.5% of all US online ads in Q4 2002, based on impressions. But, relative to their dollar impact on Internet ad spending and their impression count, pop-ups get a disproportionate amount of attention from both the media and consumers. A recent PlanetFeedback survey that found pop-ups lead all ad forms in levels of annoyance and distrust-even more so than spam.

US Consumer Ad Attitudes (% respondents; Index Norm=100)

	% Trust	Trust Index	% Annoyed	Annoyance Index
Word-of-mouth Recommendations	61%	251	9%	27
Print ads	47	194	5	15
TV ads	42	173	12	39
E-Mail subs	39	161	13	39
Radio ads	35	144	11	33
Direct mail	21	86	31	93
Outdoor ads	20	82	11	33
Paid search eng	14	58	29	87
Infomercials	9	37	39	117
Web banner ads	8	33	53	160
Door-to-door	4	16	78	235
Spam	3	12	77	232
Pop-up ads	2	8	83	250

Source: PlanetFeedback, April 2003

But, says Will Tifft, Senior Vice President and General Manager, 24/7 Real Media, in Target Marketing, May 2002, "People see pop-ups the way they see blow-in cards in magazines. Everyone says they hate them, but they still perform at three to four times the rate of a standard ad."

Many online publishers like how they receive at least twice as much for pop-ups than they do for banners. "Pop-up ads can cost between $15 and $35 per thousand impressions, according to Gartner, while the average banner ad costs between $3 and $7 per thousand impressions," reports Dow Jones Business News.

And, average click-through rates for pop-ups surpass those for banner ads. Recent research released by Advertising.com shows how both the click-through and conversion rates for pop-up ads are 13 and 14 times higher, respectively, than for standard banner ads.

Click-Through Index (to full banner 468x60) by Format, 2003

	Click-Through Rate	Conversion Rate
Full banner	100	100
Large banner (728x90)	110	70
Skyscraper (120x600)	160	120
Pop-up	1320	1420

Source: Advertising.com, May 2003 Based on 168 million ads to 15 million users in one week period

Nielsen//NetRatings says, "As pop-up share increases in the market, consumers will speak with their site visits... with eventual consumer acceptance of pop-ups, advertisers (will continue) use of the medium as an effective marketing platform."

You can find out more at http://www.emarketer.com.