Things To Keep In Mind When Advertising Online

The Internet has now become an official advertising medium. It is so commonplace on the web that virtually every page has an ad of some sort. Unfortunately, ubiquity does not translate to acceptance, as some ads do affect and annoy people.

While it is a good way to earn some extra cash while running a website, you should know beforehand which advertisements work and which do not. Sometimes, some advertising tricks can undermine both the advertiser and your site's credibility and reputation, and instead of drawing more visitors, drive them away.

Based on a few logical guidelines, your advertisements should, as best as possible, avoid these following attributes:

• Loads slowly
• Blinks on and off excessively
• Tries to trick you into clicking on it
• Occupies most of the page
• Moves content around
• Pops-up in front of your window
• Floats across the screen
• Does not have a 'Close' button
• Covers what you are trying to see
• Automatically plays sound

This is especially true for pop-ups since people have started to defend themselves against pop-ups by using pop-up or ad-blocking software.

What's Good

Not many ads are actively loved by users, but some advertising techniques do have a positive impact on the user experience. Users were particularly pleased with ads that clearly:

• Indicated what will happen if people click on them,
• Related to what people are doing online,
• Identifed themselves as advertisements,
• Presented information about what they are advertising, and
• Provided additional information without having to leave the page.

These design elements are tightly connected to traditional Web usability guidelines: make the users' options clear, speak plainly, and provide the information users want.

Lessons for Websites

Sites that accept advertising should think twice before accepting ads that 80 to 90% of users strongly dislike. The resulting drop in customer satisfaction will damage your website's long-term prospects.

Advertisers themselves might be tempted to continue with these nasty design techniques as long as they can find sites that will run them. After all, they typically yield higher clickthrough rates. But clickthrough is not the only goal. Users who are deceived into clicking on a misleading ad might drive up your CTR, but they're unlikely to convert into paying customers. And your brand suffers a distinct negative impact when you antagonize customers and use techniques that are associated with the worst scum on the net.

Corporate websites can also learn from these studies, even if they don't run ads. Many elements that users dislike in ad design are also common in mainstream web design, with equally bad affects. A few things to avoid:

• Pop-ups
• Slow load times
• 'Teasing' links, misleading categories, and other elements that trick users into clicking
• Content that doesn't clearly state the site's purpose or what a particular page covers
• Content that moves around the page
• Sound that plays automatically

All of these techniques have caused problems in traditional usability studies of non-advertising sites, and they should be avoided like the plague. The fact that they're associated with the most hated ads is one more reason that respectable sites should avoid them at all costs.

About the author: Alvin Poh has been specialising in web development, content distribution, advertising and marketing strategies since 1995. More of his articles can be found at http://www.xodes.com/.