The movement against pop-up ads pushed many web designers to create stubborn advertisements that don’t let a web visitor enter the website without signing up for a newsletter. Just in case this isn’t clear yet to web owners, designers, and developers: there is no better way to annoy web visitors than make them sign up for something when they haven’t even seen your website yet. The easiest way for them to escape such intrusion is to exit the web page. This means that you lose that golden opportunity to sell them the information you have on your website. It’s not a good start, right?
If you make a risk management analysis of your website, one of the most telling problems you will encounter is the pop-up ads you try to push to your visitors’ consciousness. Annoying web visitors the moment they land on your homepage is a no-no. Although pop-up ads have been around for a long time, web visitors still agree that some of them are more intrusive than two to three years ago.
What Are the Most Annoying Pop-up Ads?
One of the most annoying pop-up ads is the one asking you to agree to their cookies policy. The website will collect data that they can use to personalize the ads that will appear on your screen. You cannot enter the site unless you agree to the policy or, you manage your policy settings first. If you have to find something on that website, this is an annoying way to get your data and use it against or for you.
Another annoying pop-up is the subscription ad. Imagine a website asking you to sign up for their digital newsletter even before you had the chance to browse their site and looking over the information there. How can you know that you want to receive updates from them if the site didn’t give you enough time to check out the site?
But the most annoying pop-up ad is the one asking you to allow the site to send you notifications via a browser extension. The chatbot that takes up the whole page is another annoying form of a pop-up ad. If web visitors want to talk with you, they will seek that minimized chat box in the corner of their screen. It doesn’t have to take up half of their screens.
How Can You Use Pop-up Ads Effectively?
Pop-up ads are indeed useful and effective in sending messages to web visitors. But it is also true that when not used properly, they are annoying. The vast majority of web users want pop-ups never to appear on their screens again. But because the digital world is also dependent on marketing and advertising, making these disappear is not an option.
So, as a business, how can you make your pop-up ads more effective? How can you make sure they benefit your business? Here is a simple guide you can follow:
Be Interesting and Not Interruptive
Use pop-up ads only when you have something of value to tell your web visitors. They need to get something out of the ad. For example, customers will love pop-up ads with coupon codes, free shipping options, and discount offers. These are the kinds of pop-ups that they will appreciate.
Make It an Option
Why don’t you make the ad an option? If you have something to offer your web visitors and they want to know about it, make it an option for them to read about it when they want and need to. You can use a pull-up or pull-down menu where you can place your offers. If web visitors want to sign up for a newsletter, allow them to do so on the sidebar. You don’t need to take over their screens to get your point across. If they are interested in knowing more about your website, they can check it by pulling down or up the bar.
Design It Well
If you are going to use pop-up ads, make sure that they are well-designed. Use the same colors as the ones on your website. Create a theme that will make a cohesive design. Use the right wording and call-to-action. Make sure that the content is well-written and easy for the web users to understand. And lastly, allow the web visitors to close and minimize the ad.
Pop-up ads are an excellent tool for marketing, but only if you use them effectively, which means minding their design, placement, and timing. They should be relevant to web visitors. They need to bring value to their visit. But if the ads are getting in their way, then it’s easy enough for them never to visit your site again.
