In: General

Ad Minimizing: would you use it?

Would you like/want/use an Ad minimization function like the one located at the top of this site – if you have cookies enabled that is – here I discuss the idea in more depth.

Lots of people find adverts on websites intrusive and distracting and if done badly can lead to that user not coming back to the site in question. But the truth is for a lot of sites that Ad revenue is a way for them to continue their projects and keep the content they supply to you free. We’re unlikely to see a shift away from Ad supported content anytime soon. The question is what can we do to stop our users feeling like force fed chickens.

You could of course go the route of some companies – which I don’t condone by the way – whereby they charge the user to view their content Ad free or just to view their content period – I’m looking at you Experts Exchange. All internet content and information as a whole should be free and that’s not just for the Utopians that’s for the good of society people. Anyway that’s a whole other post, so moving on. While I believe users shouldn’t be forced to pay for content I do recognize the need for revenue generation for projects to evolve and continue.

Now while there are a number of ways to monetize a website or web-project by far the easiest is via Adverts. The problem for me is when revenue generation via Adverts takes over the content that is being displayed. I’m not going to name shame or link to sites here because there are websites all over the place that have an Advert as their main first focus – 728×90 Ads as a top banner for instance – and you probably view many daily.

One thing I’d like to try on a larger more commercial scale is the ability for the user, your target audience, to tidy up their experience via Ad Minimizing. One example – if you haven’t done it already – is at the top of this page. The 468×60 Ad up there can be Minimized for 10 minutes. That means for 10 minutes you will not see an ad in that location. Sure, to this site that doesn’t mean much in terms of space gained. But think about those sites where a large Ad bar takes up the top of the page, one you usually have to keep scrolling past to get to the content you want. For a user the gains are intimidate.

Now lets talk about the ramifications to advertisers and revenue. The way I see it – from both my own browsing and talking to colleagues – is it’ll change nothing. Except in the rare occasion where a site is paid for Ad Views over Ad Clicks. How do I justify this? Well the first time you, as a user, visits a page you are likely to notice and respond – whatever that response is – to an Advert. After that first view it doesn’t really matter if that Ad changes, the truth is a user will blank those spaces out in their mind. You can argue left and right about ‘well if the Ad is eye catching enough the user…’ NO it’ll likely catch the users attention yes, but for the wrong reason: it’ll piss them off.

Giving the user the ability to Minimize an Ad will help alienated users as you’re giving them more control over the content they want to see. Should – it needs testing – actually up click-through rates because you’re still getting your first visit hit for the Ad shown PLUS a much bigger second, third, forth… hit because after the time is up the Ad will reappear and grab the users attention again.

To any “10 minutes is too long, no one would see a second ad” questions. I don’t believe it is. Leaving out the fact that many people have windows open for longer than this while they read other content, do work, make tea etc… If you can’t get someone to stay on your site for more than 10 minutes you either don’t have enough content or you’re not supplying content people want to see. With the move towards user generated content more user interaction and better content are required to keep people around. Is it too much to ask, as a user, to have some way to tidy up their experience?

I’m going to leave it there for my points – for now. But I’d love to hear your opinion as a user on whether a way to Minimize Ads is something you’d want to use and/or like to see on the websites you visit.

Posted: Friday, November 14th, 2008
Tags: Ads, Adverts, content-value, Minimizing, tidy-clutter, users