There was a time when Internet advertisements were inevitable. You could not load a site without a screaming ad jumping on you from the home page or a pop-up asking 20 seconds of your attention before you could watch the 15-second chat video.
Advertisements are always everywhere, but people are constantly finding new ways to get around them. The startup ClarityRay, acquired by Yahoo in 2014, revealed that between 6% and 50% of site impressions are limited by ad blockers. Adobe and PageFair reported that in 2014, almost 5% of Internet users used an ad-blocking program, and these numbers are increasing.
Companies that rely on annoying ad campaigns will lose more business than they realize because people will ignore their content. To attract rather than repel your audience, think about the experience of your users. If you offer users a positive and useful experience, they will not block your ads.
How to advertise on the internet?
If you’re skeptical about applying this mindset for your next ad campaign, consider the success of sponsored posts on popular blogs and websites. They are designed to engage and sell to the audience, but people do not see them as a nuisance. Entertaining and useful content makes consumers dream.
Sponsored articles are highly acclaimed by site publishers as content marketing ensures high quality and relevance to their readers. It’s a more natural experience than watching a video when you try to read an article or have to watch an ad for 10 seconds before you can access the content you want to see.
You do not know where to start? Use these principles to guide your next campaign and publish ads that will resonate with your audience.
1. Do not run away from your audience.
Take note of how users respond to different strategies. Retargeting is extremely effective at increasing clickthrough rates, but up to 35% of Internet users find this tactic annoying or even intrusive. Once they have seen the same unsolicited product advertisement 10 times, the boredom turns into anger. And believe me, you will not like your users when they are angry …
2. Help customers do what they want to do.
People are looking for products and services that make their lives easier, no more complicated. Keep this in mind when developing your product and designing your digital strategy. If you can reduce your online payment flow by 15 clicks to 4, your bounce rate will decrease.
Do not distract customers with unwanted ads or insert irrelevant promotions into the payment process. They are trying to give you their money, so let them do it! Providing a hassle-free experience is more effective at gaining their trust than throwing them a pile of last-minute ads right in the face.
3. Think multiplatform.
You probably spend most of your time thinking about how to reach the right audience, but these data mean nothing if you do not have the right time and the right place to reach them.
If the goal of your ad campaign is to acquire a new mobile app user, stop spending money unnecessarily on computer ads. Users are in very different states of mind when they surf the web with their desktop rather than their tablet or smartphone. Instead of guessing if your desktop ads have impacted your mobile enrollment rates, find your target users in their primary browsing modes and personalize your message accordingly.
The future of advertising lies in the user experience. People do not hate advertisements in themselves, they hate ads that are irrelevant, boring, or that prevent them from achieving a particular goal. Design advertising content to fit naturally on the page and enhance the user experience. Do not ask users to stop reading the page they are visiting to see your sales page. Use native content to engage and advertise authentically and discreetly.
