Commentary

Why Don't We Click on Pop-Up Ads?

In an age of digital everything, it is not a surprise that advertising has been working its way into the digital sector as well.

Types of Internet Advertising:

-Social Media

-Email Advertising

-Website Promotion

And the type I find most ineffective: pop-up ads, banner ads, and the ads specialized to our preferences on Facebook.

Recent Studies Agree

Apparently I am not alone. A blog recently posted by Laurie Sullivan, “Internet Users View Ads As Distraction,” talks about a recent study looking at how many consumers actually click on the ads they see on the Internet.

These results were astounding!

The average rate of an ad being clicked on online is only 0.09%. Having this information, advertisers wanted to know why so many people weren’t clicking on the ads they had placed online.

“Distraction” was the number one reason. Fear of what would happen if they clicked on the ad was also a worry in many consumers.

Our Culture is Distracted All the Time, Why Not Online?

I was surprised that distraction was the top reason, but as I continued to read the article, I saw why that was a concern of consumers. As we are working online, many times an ad will pop up on the screen, distracting us from what we are doing. If we are working hard on something and click on the ad, it could take us to a different web page, followed by another one, and the next thing we know we’ve wasted 30 minutes jumping from page to page just because of one advertisement.

Does This Affect the Workforce?

When I thought about it this way, I wondered what effect this would have on the workforce. Many organizations are already blocking social media sites from their workplace to enable more productivity in their workers, but they do not have that type of control over advertisements.

I could not help but wonder if a large number of the people who did not want to be distracted by advertisements, were people who spent a significant portion of time online during work. These people did not want to be distracted so they could complete the task at hand and avoid working longer hours to complete a task that would not have normally taken so long.

Will the Results of This Study Change Advertisers Approach in the Future?

After seeing the results of this study, I wonder if the advertisers will take the results into consideration. According to the survey, the methods they are currently using are not effective so it should be changed, but it will be interesting to see what these changes look like in the future.

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