Jakob Nielsen talks of the The Most Hated Advertising Techniques :

"Summary : studies of how people react to online advertisements have identified several design techniques that impact the user experience very negatively. ............

Lessons for Websites :

Sites that accept advertising should think twice before accepting ads that 80 to 90% of users strongly dislike. The resulting drop in customer satisfaction will damage your long-term prospects.

Advertisers themselves might be tempted to continue with these nasty design techniques as long as they can find sites that will run them. After all, they typically yield higher clickthrough rates. But clickthrough is not the only goal. Users who are deceived into clicking on a misleading ad might drive up your CTR, but they're unlikely to convert into paying customers. And your brand suffers a distinct negative impact when you antagonize customers and use techniques that are associated with the worst scum on the net.

Corporate websites can also learn from these studies, even if they don't run ads. Many elements that users dislike in ad design are also common in mainstream Web design, with equally bad affects. A few things to avoid:

• Pop-ups
• Slow load times
• "Teasing" links, misleading categories, and other elements that trick users into clicking
• Content that doesn't clearly state the site's purpose or what a particular page covers
• Content that moves around the page
• Sound that plays automatically

All of these techniques have caused problems in traditional usability studies of non-advertising sites, and I've warned against them many times before. The fact that they're associated with the most hated ads is one more reason that respectable sites should avoid them at all costs."

There's an important point being made here on how advertising success is measured.  Its not merely about number of clickthroughs but about emotions associated with the brand being advertised.  If it irritates you, disturbs you and you have negative feelings about the brand, how will that ever translate into sales ?  

I particularly dislike online ads attached to websites that play sound automatically and reduce load times.  Am using pop-up blockers in my browser so i've effectively eliminated that menace.

What online advertising makes you feel positive ? Which parts do you dislike ?   

11:28:48 AM    comment []  trackback []