How many of you actually buy something based on their pop-up ad?

Question

Advertisers spend all this money developing pop ups (pop unders) that are hard for popup blockers to handle. How effective are trhese ads? What products are being bought based on these annoying ads?

Obviously someone must be buying. Otherwise why incur the expense and take the chance of turning off potential customers.

Answer 1

I never have, never will, buy something that forces a pop-up on me. If some product I currently use does this, I will change brands. Stupid TV ads are the same way. I will never eat at burger king again after the stupid homo inbred king ads.

Answer 2

Popup ads are usually aimed for people who barely surf the net. They are targeted at people who do not know better about getting a popup blocker.

I think they greatly reduced since all browsers implemented the popup blocker. Now they usually just embed it in their webpage without using popups.

I do not think they are very effective nowadays, but there are people who just do not know any better about how to block these ads so they actually fall into the trap. These victims are the ones that think they are real and are naive to them. I havent had a popup ad in a very long time, but if they do popup, I just close them because of the experience Ive had with them.

This is from CNN back in 2004:

Pop-up's pop-off point

Study says consumers don't need to see the same Web ad 50 times. Cut it down to five.
April 9, 2004: 10:19 AM EDT
By Parija Bhatnagar, CNN/Money staff writer



NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Internet advertisers take note: You don't need to hawk your wares with a zillion pop-up ads when really just five or six are enough, according to a new industry report.

"People are seeing as many as 50 of the same ads in one day. This doesn't really work and it's not good use of advertising dollars," said Young-Bean Song, director of analytics for advertising technology company Atlas DMT.

The study of 38 online advertisers showed that the odds of converting someone into a buyer of a product or service are typically the highest after they see a fresh online ad for the first time.

But the best overall conversion rate is after five or six exposures. "After that, there's an precipitous decline in the effectiveness of the ad," said Song. "It would make sense for advertisers and online publishers to put a 'frequency cap' on ads."

He gave an example: "For example, Yahoo can cap each ad on its Web site at five impressions. That means that the same person won't see the same ad more than five times," said Song.

"Internet users will see a greater variety of ads in a given day and advertisers will spend money more efficiently," said Song. "This is also a way for online content publishers to distinguish themselves from the competition."

Industry observers say advertisers love pop-ups and banner ads because of the low costs, usually a few dollars, to put online. That's why they're ubiquitous.

In fact, advertisers launched just over six billion pop-up and pop-under ads -- or about 7 percent of all online ads -- in February, according to Nielsen/NetRatings. Total U.S online ad spending in 2003 was $6.3 billion, up 10 percent from the year before.

At the same time, consumers are showing that they've had enough of a "terminal" ad invasion everytime they surf the Web. Industry watchers say websites have reported that anywhere from 5 to 23 percent of the Internet's population already uses pop-up blockers.

Said Nate Elliott, analyst with Jupiter Research, "Currently 45 percent of leading Web sites accept pop-up ads, while 65 percent accept pop-unders. But we've noticed that number is shrinking. It's the annoyance factor. More people say they're annoyed with pop-ups than with spam."

"When you ask marketers about the pop-up ads, they say slyly that they are very effective. My response to that is Tony Soprano's methods are effective," quipped one industry observer who did not want to be identified, referring to the mobster character of a popular TV series. "Would you use them, too?"

Meanwhile, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) is soon to release its own recommended guidelines for pop-up advertising.

Said spokesman Stu Ginsberg, "The report is tentatively scheduled for next month. However, this is not an 'official' industry standard. These are only suggested guidelines that we're recommending to advertisers."

Answer 3

Ignore them and go aboout my business! If you are like most people you have pop-up blockers installed! So why do they spend tons of money to have their products ignored or never even seen? They could spend that money on education of today's unruly youth! That would be a better investment for America's future. :-)

Answer 4

I do not buy anything based on popup ads. I rarly click on them. I will sometimes click on google ads if they seem interesting. Google AdSense is the best money making advert that small sites can use.

Answer 5

Actually I avoid products on pop up because the company has no respect for others by making these forced commercials.

Answer 6

This is the greatest question ever asked. Who the f--k even pays attention to them more than to be annoyed by them? I hate them. Especially the ones that advertise online degrees, and all these gorgeous young women frontin' that $h!t... like, will I look like them if I get your online degree?

Answer 7

I hate them. I would never do business with anyone who shoves an ad in my face when I'm busy.
It looks like nobody buys from them. So why don't they go away?

Answer 8

ive never bought an never will buy somethin from a pop-up
i think it is a waste of money.

Answer 9

absolutely nothing!! And those floating "eye catchers" are the worst! I have multiple programs to prevent the stupid things!

Answer 10

Never. Can't trust them, so they are wasting their money trying to get me to buy.

But, millions of people do buy from them. Thats why we keep seeing them.