Trends in Online Advertising

Regular web users will almost certainly be aware of an increasing amount of 'invasive' advertising appearing online. A variety of methods are now being used to make online advertising almost unavoidable for the user, including:

• Placement of adverts within content - often stretching across the width of the screen
• Use of advertising 'splash screens' for a couple of seconds as requested content downloads
• Animated adverts appearing above content and temporarily obscuring the page being read
• 'Pop under' adverts which remain hidden until the browser is closed

It's pretty obvious why these methods are popular with advertisers - they help prevent users from avoiding or ignoring advertising. This trend has undermined the conventional banner ad, and as a result web advertising is moving to a model more analogous with television, in which advertising interrupts the programming and is regarded as a necessary evil by the viewer.

Given that in order to survive most online publishing businesses rely on selling advertising, they are in the difficult position of finding a balance between generating revenue through advertising that works, and keeping readers satisfied with the user experience and thus returning to the site in the future. At the same time, the ability to measure the effectiveness of online advertising so accurately means that advertisers themselves will be well aware of any failure to deliver potential customers.

(As a side note, this reporting ability may well be behind many of the 'failures' of online advertising - would conventional advertising techniques survive the rigorous evaluation of their effectiveness that is available to online advertisers?)

Resolving the Dilemma

It would be easy to merely rail against invasive advertising from a usability perspective, but not particularly helpful for those who are finding that it is a necessity for their business. The alternative, subscription-based, revenue model is also unproven, and in the competitive and saturated online publishing market, few sites have enough readers for this to be a success.

This competitive nature of the market place also makes life awkward for managers of advertising-funded websites. If advertising becomes too intrusive, users will go elsewhere, and without readers selling advertising is going to become hard work. The trick will be to minimise annoyance whilst maximising the impact of advertising. In this area some tricks will no doubt be learned from the more mature industry of television. Particular techniques include:

Making Advertising Entertaining

Most obviously, and most effectively, television advertising entertains and thus has intrinsic merit to the viewer. Obviously it can be a hit or miss affair, but this is one area where the web industry is light years behind. Of course there are difficulties involved in improving entertainment levels, but imagination can yield results. One effective banner ad I have seen was a self contained 'free kick' game leading to the Sky Sports website - successful simply because it engaged and entertained the user rather than simple talking 'at' them.

Using 'Sponsorship'

Just as some television programmes are sponsored by advertisers, so online content can be 'associated' with commercial sponsors. This is a pretty safe method of giving prominence to an advertisers name without a significant impact in terms of user experience. Obviously there may be issues concerning editorial independence, particularly for news services, but as long as these are treated sensitively there should be a future for sponsorship online.

Avoiding Negative Impact On Content Itself

Many online advertising methods tend to seek attention by obscuring the content itself - either appearing unexpectedly on top of the browser, or in the middle of a story, or simply by being a distraction (this category includes animated banner ads). In general, this is a misguided strategy that will harm user experience and undermine the value of a site in the long term.

Again taking a tip from the television industry, online advertising should be clearly separated from the content itself, rather than continually frustrating the user by popping up repeatedly during a simple task such as reading a news feature. For this reason, I believe that 'splash screen' advertising is preferable to techniques that invade the content itself, and that it will probably prove to be a long-term success.

Working Within Agreed Limits

Television audiences know when to expect advertising to appear and their expectations are managed in this regard. On the web, however, a 'free for all' has developed that is beginning to cause serious user unrest, unsurprisingly given the many and various underhand tricks that are being used to advertise online. Any site that has a firm, understandable policy on advertising will soon find that users appreciate this approach and should begin to enjoy improved customer loyalty.