Adverts, Adverts; All The Way Down

Talking Heads

Over the recent months and years we've seen many talking heads from the Web and advertising companies telling us that if we want 'free' services and 'apps' on the Web then we're going to have to accept advertising as the price for this. The increasing numbers of users employing various "ad-blockers" in their browsers are portrayed somehow as "evil" and are denying these companies a legitimate source of revenue. They warn users that if you deny this revenue stream then you'll have to pay, they argue.

OK, I get it. Running and hosting Web sites doesn't come for free and most Web companies aren't charities; someone has to pay for it. There are many worthy Web sites out there that are run on a shoestring and use advertising as a way of 'keeping the lights on', as it were. However, if they and the advertising companies are wondering why more users are deploying ad-blockers and revenue is flattening out, then they need to take a long, hard look at themselves.

In the following section, I offer a few reasons why they need to change their behaviour.

The User Experience

I confess, I deploy ad-blockers on any browser that I'm able. Why? Well, take my experiences on my ageing and obsolete tablet. Some apps don't give you the choice of browser to use to display information and the browser invoked doesn't offer the ability to deploy said ad-blockers.

What then happens is I have to wait upwards of 30 seconds for the article to load (and my router averages 50 to 70 Mbps). Ten to fifteen seconds is the load time for the article I'd like to read and the remainder is waiting for the adverts to load.

It's especially annoying when the loading is halted when an advertisement pops up right in the middle of the display and loading won't resume until you dismiss it. If you want to make my blood boil, pop up a full display advertisement, because that'll really make me want to buy whatever it is you're peddling!

What this means to me is that the "wait" in WWW is in the majority due to advertising. You (the companies) wonder why I deploy ad-blockers? Really?

Another source of unalloyed joy and I suspect, a major reason why the advertising takes so long to load is the amount and rate of animation, video and the like that you think will demand our attention with the "Oh look, shiny, shiny" approach. Here's a thought for your consideration: That sort of approach is similar to running into a room where a quiet conversation is occurring and shouting straight across it. It's just plain rude and will not dispose me to buy your stuff. Fire up the ad-blocker.

In addition to all of this you then want to harvest lots of data about me, my browsing habits, my inside leg measurements and all sorts of unnecessary and intrusive data that you then use to bombard me with yet more of the stuff I've described above and endear yourself to me even further. Worse still, you'll probably sell it on to some organisation that I've never heard of and am not interested in dealing with in any way. Just for money. I then get bombarded by them or whomever they sell it on to, adding even more delays. Reaching for the ad-blocker and the cookie killers even now...

The Alternative

Some organisations take the approach of saturating their 'free' section of the Web site with advertising and promising you that if you subscribe or go 'pro' then all of this will cease because you (the user) will have access to the 'special' sections and you won't be bothered by all of this intrusive advertising. Most users don't subscribe or go 'pro' and I'd suggest that this is because:

• Users don't know whether they'll be using the site enough to justify the subscription costs (cf. the underused TV boxes under their TV's) and therefore won't pay.
• Users dislike the 'subscription' model intensely. Usually, the subscription requires the setup of a recurring debit to their current (checking) account of the Direct Debit (DD) type. DD's are effectively a license for the payee to raid that account and take any amount out that they feel like. It could be £5 per month or £5000 and they don't trust Web site companies to arbitrarily raise the price of the subscription at any point. Again compare this with the contracts the mobile phone vendors have used. Users are nervous of subscriptions.
• You (companies) make money off of the data you gather about us so why should we pay again to lose the advertising? Sometimes, we pay and you still serve advertising. Low; very low. Cancelled subscription anyone?

When offered the chance to reduce or eliminate all of this, most users jump at the chance and you label them as somehow 'evil freeloaders'. That doesn't make you more popular with the user base. Instead of attacking the very users that you want to buy your stuff, stop and consider the following:

• Dial back all of the rapid animation, videos and the rest of the "shiny, shiny" stuff. Less intrusive advertising that loads more quickly might actually make users look upon you favourably. This is especially true for mobile users. All of this code chews through their data allowances and they will not regard you with any favour whatsoever.
• Avoid the pop up advertising and definitely NO use of full display pop ups. At least don't make your potential customers hostile towards you.
• Besides, all of this code you load can be a potential security risk. The more code and scripting you load; the more attack surfaces your offer to potential miscreants. Maybe you just don't care about your users safety? Well, users sense that and again, no sale.
• Let users try the 'pro' sections or apps (or whatever) for a long enough period so that they can gauge whether the price you're asking can be justified for their needs. Give them a decent 'try before you buy' period; you might be pleasantly surprised.
• Don't use subscriptions to obtain revenue. Users want to see what they're buying and want to be able to fix their costs as much as they can. If you offer your services for £50 per year, don't come back in six months asking for another £50.
• Stop selling data about users to shadowy brokers and such. It creates a security risk, promotes spamming and is just downright creepy. This sets users against ever buying anything from you. Don't play fast and loose with your users' data. Yes, selling it to any Tom, Dick or Harry is a short-term way of generating revenue, but safeguarding their data generates trust and that pays dividends in the longer term.

A Counterpoint

Personally, I understand that an amount of advertising is a necessary way of generating revenue to keep your site running and a living for you. However when that advertising reduces my reasonably high-speed broadband router to the speed of a dial-up connection (yes. I'm old enough) then I'm going to deploy every method I can get hold of to cut that nonsense out. I pay for broadband, not dial-up.

I'm not hostile to advertising per se and I'm not saying don't use advertising. Rather, I'm advocating that you consider your users and deploy your advertising with more care. You will engender trust and that will bring you more revenue in the longer term. If you pursue such a strategy, who knows, you might get added to the ad-blocker's whitelist...

Polemic over: Thank you for reading.