Mobile ads - Do they drive you crazy?

Picture browsing on your phone while playing, using an app, watching a video, or just surfing the web – and suddenly „wow, here comes a nice ad!”. Nerve racking, right? Most mobile ads are irritating, but some of them are certainly more so than others.

Inskin Media – an online advertising format provider – made a study to find out which mobile ad formats grind users’ gears the most. It turns out that the advertised content is not the problem for most users, presentation is.

According to the study, most hated ads were good old pop-ups – 28% picked them. Ads that spring up right in the middle of your screen and disrupt your browsing experience took second place with a convincing 26%, while third place went to ads that make you wait before loading a page with 18%.

These three types are good examples of intrusive ads that disrupt your browsing experience by demanding your attention. There are cleaner, more user friendly formats out there, that fall into the „tolerated” category. For example the ones that move down the page alongside native content as your scroll (13%), or stay at the top and the bottom of the page (8%), are generally well received.

Users don’t mind ads as they understand, that these make websites and applications – actually most of the internet - free. Although they hate having their browsing session disrupted by ads, more often than not they still prefer it to paying for ad-free services!

Advertisers have to plan carefully, as annyoing ads can result in a negative user perception of both – the advertiser, just as well as the site or provider where the ads are placed.

Advertisers need to find the balance between utilizing intrusive and non-intrusive ads – while users have to get used to occasional promotional tools and learn to coexist if they want free sites in the future.

Author: Roni Frankó