Today, AOL announced an initiative to offer a pop-up blocker to its subscribers (ironic as it is, considering AOL itself pioneered the pop-up concept in the early days.) This is AOL’s second
initiative in less than six months to block the pesky things – first , in October, they stopped selling pop-ups on its network and now they’re installing software on computers using AOL 8.0, which
plays a sound every time a site tries to open a pop-up or pop-under window, letting users chose whether to open it or not. (Similarly to what EarthLink has been doing since last year.)
The odd
thing is, while pop-up advertising has grown in the past year, they still just make up a small percentage of ad impressions served. According to Nielsen//NetRatings' AdRelevance data, pop-up
advertising impressions comprised just 3.5% of the total online ad impressions in Q4 2002, as compared to 1.9% a year ago in Q4 2001.
So why are pop-ups equaling email spam on the scale of online
annoyances?
"Online advertising's reputation has been tarnished by those pop-up advertisers who indiscriminately serve their ads to users uninterested in the product being advertised. In addition,
failing to utilize frequency caps is tantamount to pouring salt on the existing wound of a frustrated consumer," said Charles Buchwalter, VP of client analytics at NetRatings.
The entertainment
industry used the most pop-ups as a percentage of total industry impressions in the fourth quarter of 2002. Led by a plethora of online casino advertisers, nearly 10% of entertainment impressions were
born to pop-up windows. Hardware and electronics advertisers were the second heaviest users of pop-up advertisements (7.8%), led by the infamous X10. Public services (7%), software (6.9%), and travel
industries (6.1%) make up to top five.
As Buchwalter said, "Indications are that many advertisers are succeeding with some pop-up campaigns. While smart advertisers and publishers will respond to
their consumers' concerns, pop-ups aren't going to disappear any time soon."