This is a problem because I used to be so good at tuning out the bouncing “HERE I AM LOOK AT ME LOOK AT ME” ads on the side of my browser.  Today when I logged into an unnamed online account, I actually felt offended that this company decided it was okay for this obnoxious, attention-deprived ad to be in my face while I was trying to read and respond to email.  I ended up sliding the browser over so the ad was off the page in order to actually concentrate on my email.

We shouldn’t have to do that.  How effective can an advertisement be if people are so annoyed by it they move it out of view? 

And furthermore, do ads like this actually work?  The image on Des’ blog post indicates that for many categories, click-through rates are under .1%. I’d love to know what the click-through rate is for specifically those ads that bounce around screaming “CLICK ON THE DANCING MONKEY NOW FOR A FREE IPAD!” and “OMG YOU’RE THE 5,553,024,203 VISITOR AND YOU *WON*!!!!!!!!!!!” 

GUESS WHAT? I LIKE ADS.

Here’s something that may surprise some website owners: I like ads. I read ads, I forward ads to my friends that are entertaining, I re-watch ads when they’re clever or funny, and I can still sing many jingles of ads I heard as a kid on the radio or television.  In fact, as someone who spends a lot of money buying magazines and print publications, there are even some I buy for the ads.  Magazines like Bon Appétit and Elle have such gorgeous pictures that I rarely read the majority of the articles, I flip through images, and I never care if they’re ads or part of the magazine. I am not anti-advertisements. 

Magazine creators, unlike website owners, are not surprised that their readers like their ads.  They already knew this, and that’s why their ad prices can be so high for their printed publications.

WHO IS MAKING MONEY FROM THESE ADS?

What I don’t understand is if or how these ugly website ads actually work.  Google AdSense must make some people money, because I know people who have gotten cheques from them.  But they’ve never made any money from me clicking on things. 

I’d love to see a website that curated its advertisements as carefully as the print magazines I read do.  If the advertisements online were as good as they are in print, I’d likely click or interact with them more.  As an example, in the Atlantic app review I did last week, the single ad was a very well done advertisement for the new 2012 Mercedes-Benz CLS. I played with the ad for a while & spent some time with it because it was cool and nicely done.  (I’m not currently car shopping, but I would have interacted with many ads which were as well-designed as this one.)

Is that unrealistic?  Most websites probably don’t have the time or money to hand-select advertisements or to be picky about them or send them back when they’re ugly.  Plus many websites and applications use advertisement placement services, like Google AdSense, AdMob and Microsoft pubCenter, which don’t give them any control at all other than possibly the dimensions and the placement on the site for the ads and the option to exclude competitors or certain URLs.

A BETTER WAY?

What if there were another way?  If you could use an ad placement service like AdSense and guarantee that the advertisements were of a certain quality bar or that they had been vetted by a graphic designer or someone with taste, wouldn’t you?

People complain all the time about the fact that there is less and less money to be made from online advertising. I think many people are wasting opportunities by creating obnoxious and tasteless ads that don’t do any justice to their product.

Starting today I’m going to run a small experiment.  I’m going to see how long I can go without looking at bad online advertisements. When I come across a site that uses ads which drive me crazy, I’m going to put it on my “blocked” list.  By the end of next week I will either have long since abandoned the idea as impossible or have created a list of sites that I no longer need to visit.  But also I am hoping to find some sites that are shining examples of how to use great ads online.