Balancing the need for sites and services to make money and giving the visitors a good experience can be quite difficult. As you browse through the Internet it is easy to find examples of all types of sites that have all types of strategies on this. From the ‘spam’ sites that are over loaded with ads to the point where the site will barely load to those who don’t run any ads at all. Today it is more important than ever to find that middle ground where there are ads that are unobtrusive to the users.
A global survey from Accenture found that consumers are becoming more and more frustrated with the way online advertisements are being used. 92% of users replied that they ‘get annoyed when video content gets interrupted due to poor internet connections.’ When comparing that to those who say, “I think advertising interruptions while watching digital content are too frequent,” to which 84% of people replied in the affirmative. This essentially shows that people find interruptions from advertisements nearly as intrusive as those by a poor internet connection.
A potentially positive point from this survey is that 73% reported that they would be willing to pay for services (such as YouTube Red or Hulu premium) if they didn’t have ads (or the number of ads was very limited). Marketers of all types can certainly take this information to heart. If you are offering a high quality service, consider monetizing through payments rather than just ads!
While it is always important to work on providing a good overall user experience, many users are now taking this into their own hands. 61% of the respondents to the survey said that they were aware of ad-blocking tools or systems. 42% said that they were planning to pay (or continue to pay) for solutions to remove ad interruptions (whether these solutions are premium versions of sites or ad blockers is not clear).
As marketers, the best possible solution is to continue to work hard to provide users a great overall experience with ads that they will see as a benefit to their experience. While not always easy, it is going to be the best long term solution that will also provide the most opportunity for making money.
