Upside of Pop-Up Ads

[marko]

Sometimes it works!

We all get those awful pop-up ads while surfing. They're obviously based upon our own individual searches.

Google something about hockey and you start getting ads for hockey equipment, which at my age is a waste of everybody's time!

HOWEVER! Yesterday I was reading a financial article on "Real Clear Money" and an ad was in the middle of the article. It was for 'Sail Step', a step that attaches to the rail of your sailboat and makes it easy to get up on deck. It was EXACTLY what I needed and solved a problem I've had for a number of years.
($300 bucks though, but I bought one anyway)

While it is in the 0.001% of ads selling me something I needed, it was something I didn't know existed, and, as an old marketing guy I guess it does prove that it pays to advertise.

 

[mystang52]

Taking your .001% figure means they get a sale for every 100,000 pop up ads. I suspect that is more than enough for their pop ups to be worthwhile. I can't remember what it was, but a long time ago I also opened up a pop up and bought the product.

 

[athena53]

Right now I'm supposed to record every ad I see for a handful of financial service firms for an e-Rewards survey (I can redeem the points I get for Hilton points and other perks I can use) and I'm finding it a challenge to actually NOTICE ads. I'm so used to tuning them out, scrolling past them, focusing on the center of the screen, etc.

There was, however, one notable exception when I clicked on a banner ad. I was making reservations for flights between Zagreb and Dubrovnik and saw an ad for a kayaking tour around Dubrovnik's city walls. After asking DH if he was up for it, I booked it. It was one of our most memorable excursions. I still tell people planning to visit Dubrovnik to book that tour.

 

[CaptTom]

Sail steps have been around forever. I'm surprised you didn't know about them. As for the kayak tour, well, I guess that's pretty unique and the ad was well targeted.

This only reinforces my contention that ads which respect the viewer's intelligence, don't auto-play video or audio, flash, scroll or otherwise try to take over, are OK. If they happen to be well-targeted, so much the better.

 

[davebarnes]

I would rather spend 100 hours searching for a solution to a problem than see one pop-up advert.

 

[athena53]

One funny example of missing the target: last year I "discovered" electrolyte powder after a guide in India provided some when I got badly dehydrated. (In retrospect, I think that I was drinking enough water but was in bad shape because I wasn't replacing the electrolytes I was losing.) I bought a supply online through CVS.com and then started getting banner ads for hangover remedies. Drinking to excess is NOT my style!

It took me awhile to realize that hangover remedies have pretty much the same purpose: rehydration and replacing lost electrolytes.

 

[marko]

Sail steps have been around forever. I'm surprised you didn't know about them.

Yes, I've seen them and even tried a few over the years. This seems to be a new design that might actually work for me. For $300 it better!

 

[Jerry1]

I wouldn’t mind the ads if they did indeed show me things I wasn’t aware existed, but I find most of those ads show me things I’ve already bought. Typically, if I’m searching for something, I’ve bought it pretty soon thereafter. If the marketing was smart, they stop showing me the search items once I’ve bought them.

 

[braumeister]

We all get those awful pop-up ads while surfing.

Not all of us.
Pop-up blocker in the browser.
AdBlock extension (or similar).
Ghostery extension to avoid tracking.

I never see those ads.

 

[mountainsoft]

I use a popup-blocker so I never see those kinds of ads. Of course, there's plenty of other ads out there that are harder to ignore.

I have a strict rule that I NEVER buy ANY product that is solicited to me. I don't care if it's junk mail, a random phone call, an online ad, or someone knocking on my door. I just don't buy it, period. For one, I'm fairly frugal and don't want to be persuaded into an impulse sale. I'm also very leery of scams so I just assume any solicitation is a scam, even if 90% are not. One bad apple spoils the bunch, so they say.

Having said that, I do sometimes use ads as inspiration. I may see an ad for some widget I didn't know existed but find interesting. I don't buy the one in the ad, but will do research on my own. If I'm still interested after doing my research, I'll shop around for the best price. Sometimes it turns out to be the place that sent me the ad, but the majority of the time it's from someone else.

Oh, and NEVER EVER click on an email link!

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

Not all of us.
Pop-up blocker in the browser.
AdBlock extension (or similar).
Ghostery extension to avoid tracking.

I never see those ads.

AdBlock, Privacy Badger, and ScriptDefender here! (AdBlock is, of course, disabled for this domain! )

 

[Cobra9777]

I use the Adblock Plus extension on Chrome. Never see ads.

 

[W2R]

I have a strict rule that I NEVER buy ANY product that is solicited to me. I don't care if it's junk mail, a random phone call, an online ad, or someone knocking on my door. I just don't buy it, period. For one, I'm fairly frugal and don't want to be persuaded into an impulse sale. I'm also very leery of scams so I just assume any solicitation is a scam, even if 90% are not. One bad apple spoils the bunch, so they say.

+1
To my knowledge during my entire life I have never bought one single thing from an online ad, spam e-mail, spam phone calls, spam snail mail, ads in magazines, billboards, or any other type of unsolicited advertising.

I am almost 71 years old and I figure Madison Avenue has wasted countless trees and hundreds of thousands of dollars on these ads, with no resulting purchases from me. Puts a smile on my face every time I think about it.

 

[marko]

Not all of us.
Pop-up blocker in the browser.
AdBlock extension (or similar).
Ghostery extension to avoid tracking.

I never see those ads.

I was talking more about ads that are embedded into articles. You know, you read, scroll down and then have to scroll past a short 2X2 inch ad in the middle of the paragraph.

Are you able to block those too? Asking.

 

[The Cosmic Avenger]

I was talking more about ads that are embedded into articles. You know, you read, scroll down and then have to scroll past a short 2X2 inch ad in the middle of the paragraph.

Are you able to block those too? Asking.

Oh, yes. Sometimes it just leaves a barely noticeable, very short blank strip, less than 1 line of text, but sometimes you see a blank 2x2 area.

 

[Cobra9777]

I was talking more about ads that are embedded into articles. You know, you read, scroll down and then have to scroll past a short 2X2 inch ad in the middle of the paragraph.

Are you able to block those too? Asking.

I never see those either.

The only thing I see (and only at certain sites) is "paid content" which is listed same as "actual content." Example is the main page of Yahoo Finance. There are no conventional ads anywhere on the page, nor embedded in the articles. But some of the articles in the list are labeled as "sponsored." It still has the look and feel of actual content but is quite clearly an ad and often customized for me. The Adblock Plus extension for Chrome does not (or cannot) block these.

Beyond that I never see ads of any kind embedded in articles, such as you described.

 

[Starsky]

Sometimes it works out. I got a popup for a local Sensory Deprivation Tank place that I didn't know existed and it was great!

Sometimes it's downright creepy. I had a conversation with my wife about visiting Bend OR on our summer trip, and the next day I got a popup banner ad for Bend, OR. I still can't figure that one out... It can make you feel like you're in the Matrix.