Why does everyone hate ads?
That’s right. I can’t, for the life of me, understand why everyone hates ads. You already have a bunch of deals, discount and coupon apps on your phone, so why not try to save money everywhere on the Internet? Why go through the bother of navigating to the corresponding deals-discount-coupon web app when helpful brands are tracking you everywhere you go and showing you great-looking ads at just the right times (okay not all but gosh, how technology has evolved). Search for Gucci bags online and the next time you’re browsing The Verge, pop, you see an ad for the most beautiful bag that perfectly complements your skin complexion.
But still the prejudice remains. “Ads are bad and are meant to be irritably closed off or swiped away.” A major reason this happens is because of poor execution. Most of the companies just don’t do ads well, peppering us with signup modals as we’re about to leave, persistent banners and video ads that don’t skip (yeah, fuck you Facebook). It’s okay to recommend and be suggestive but being pushy and downright in-your face? Not so much.
Julian Shapiro has written a great guide on how to do ads the right way — from creatives and copy to targeting and frequency. It’s a great first step for someone who’s looking to dip their toes in ad-infested waters without pissing people off. In a recent study, the Nielsen group found that right-sided ads and “related links” at the end of your content work best and are least likely to annoy people. Participants in the study absolutely let it rip on modals, video ads w/o skip, intra-content ads, deceptive links, persistent top banners and so on and so forth, in that order.
Don’t show ads in between your content, it bugs people the hell off. Only show them at the side or at the bottom in a way that’s not intrusive and doesn’t break the visual flow.
Ads as a Business Model
Okay, I concede that ads are probably the most divisive topic as far as business models are concerned. Imagine what would happen if all the content we regularly browse on the Internet was behind a paywall! Thankfully, the places where we usually hang out daily have figured out neat little ad formats that are not jarring to the senses. They almost slip in unnoticed in the main content flow and result in higher levels of engagement as users cannot make out it’s an ad at face value. Instagram, Quora and Flipboard do this really well and I actually look out for their ads to stumble upon new products. Say hello to native ads.
Compare this against something like Reddit or Mirror (where I go for my football news) and you see why it’s so important to make ads speak the same design language as the rest of the content and not break the visual flow.
Otherwise you’ll need to resort to cute messages like this in the hope that users take pity and whitelist you (a hit-or-miss IMO)
Ultimately, it’s a business decision whether they want to make money by showing ads or doing something else. But if in case you do bite the bullet and come to the conclusion that ads ARE your best bet, keep the aforementioned things in mind while implementing them. If not, the bias will strengthen further and everyone loses. We don’t want more ads, we want (and definitely deserve) better ads.
