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How can we make ads not suck?
Google does well because the ads shown on search bring forth some form of utility. List as comments how ads could "not suck". Maybe a long list of grievances will prompt things to somehow get better. It's better than complaining and arguing with each other.
The main reason advertising is annoying is because we are looking for something else, we don't need it right now, or its the wrong audience.
If you had a huge spare tire and wanted rock hard abs, and the advertisement could prove the safety of your purchase, you would say "HELL YEAH!"
When I was 16 the advertisement for Proactiv was very engaging. It worked and I was amazed. I'm no longer a zitty teenager so now I find their advertisements annoying.
I recently joined the Spiceworks team, and it is free software. It is advertisement driven, but most in the case where you need it. It is IT management software. As an example, if you see your SQL server getting slammed, you could see an ad that offers you RAM for that specific machine. Does this advertisement suck? Probably not.
One reason advertising could suck is due to audience. If you go to Digg (which has a wide audience) you are going to get wide or undirected ads. This is why targeted advertisement is all the rage these days - because its less annoying, and more to the point effective and win-win in more cases than not.
I'd say to make advertising not suck, don't involve yourself in communities without a common interest or goal. If you are an IT manager and you are in an IT community, you will more than likely get IT advertisements. If you are watching MTV... well...
Doing targeted advertising that is utility is the best way to make ads not suck. The main reason advertising is annoying is because we are looking for something else, we don't need it right now, or its the wrong audience. If you had a huge spare tire and wanted rock hard abs, and the advertisement could prove the safety of your purchase, you would say "HELL YEAH!" When I was 16 the advertisement for Proactiv was very…
Doing targeted advertising that is utility is the best way to make ads not suck. The main reason advertising is annoying is because we are looking for something else, we don't need it right now, or its the wrong audience. If you had a huge spare tire and wanted rock hard abs, and the advertisement could prove the safety of your purchase, you would say "HELL YEAH!" When I was 16 the advertisement for Proactiv was very…
I put sites I like (and that have tasteful ads) in the AdBlock whitelist. I really wish there was a way to only block the annoying ads. Sounds like an idea for an AdBlock subscription list actually.
Doing targeted advertising that is utility is the best way to make ads not suck. The main reason advertising is annoying is because we are looking for something else, we don't need it right now, or its the wrong audience. If you had a huge spare tire and wanted rock hard abs, and the advertisement could prove the safety of your purchase, you would say "HELL YEAH!" When I was 16 the advertisement for Proactiv was very…
Yup, that's a feeling I have too. One thought is: how can you involve your community more to decide which ads are useful and get feedback?
When I install FF, I should be asked what applies to me (tech, baseball, family) and then all advertising can look to this public info first and display what's relevant only.
THIS should replace ad-blockers. Then we don't have to destroy our favorite sites' revenues and I don't have to see any prescription medicine ads.
And get rid of ads I have to "skip", ads that "pop-under", and ads that cover what I'm supposed to be reading.
Industries tends to find a way to win (or at least fight hard). Our content is going to get a lot worse rather than the advertising better, IMHO.
2. Don't autoplay audio/video on the ads. Heck, autoplay is bad for content, its super annoying for ads.
3. Increase relevance
4. There are sites where I need to search the content inbetween ads. Would we tolerate if just 30% of our TV screen was video, and the rest were ads? (text, scrolling text etc). Maintain decent ratio between content and ads.
5. Most websites don't even bother to experiment with other ways to make money, like subscription etc. quizlet turns off ads for a donation of 10$ (donations get some more features). Seems like a good experiment. May be others can try that? this could also be an option.
A lot of the ads I see that "suck" are for scam. Most, if not all of those ads are driven by rebills. If we can get rid of rebills, we can get rid of a lot of the crap ads.
Rebills and upsells are a way to make a lot of money from a single signup so that's why those advertisers pay top dollar.
And as long as the credit card companies allow scammers to operate this will continue.