The web is a platform for free and accessible information, something that has always seemed like the complete opposite in the real world, in which you have to make quite a lot of effort and spend a considerable amount of time and money to find the information you are looking for. Having all this information freely available does sometimes come at a price. That price is namely something we have all grown accustomed to in our everyday lives - ads.

To understand the reasons why ads can be harmful for your website design, we need to first understand the history of ads and compare conventional advertising to web advertising.

Why are there ads on the web?

Since information is so freely available there is heavy competition out there to provide the best content, so much so that the idea of asking money for information would prove very ineffective. The most popular websites online do not ask a cent for the information they provide and generate their income either through advertising (digg.com), services or donations (Wikipedia.org). A website needs hosting and hosting costs money so advertising comes in handy if you do not wish to charge your viewers for the information you provide.

The differences between conventional and web media

Conventional Media

Conventional advertising has been brainwashing users ever since the dark ages of media, mostly because users were handed with very few options when viewing their channel or station. You either get to choose another network or to stop viewing/listening. This method of forced advertisement is not very successful for a couple of reasons.

When you are watching television you go into a vegetative state where the emotional interpretations are more important than the intellectual ones. Every time you watch an advert you are judging an ad by how it makes you feel, whether or not the ad convinces you that the product is morally “good” or “bad” and whether you can relate to it emotionally. The ad could be selling you toilet paper (which is terribly uninteresting) but since it has a smiling baby you feel secure and convinced that it’s worth your money.
This goes one step further by repeating every 30 minutes to an hour so that they can effectively drill the campaign message into your brain.

Forced media is effective media - Effective on old mediums like the TV yes, since you cannot fast forward to your favorite show. In some countries ad breaks can be well over 10 minutes at a time and a lot of people (including me sometimes) sit through it either because we’re so used to it or because we don’t want to miss anything.

Web Media

Online media is a whole different ballgame, here you have a medium where the user has complete control over what he or she does. There is nothing keeping a user from pushing the back or close button on a window or entering a new URL or search query. This complete control puts the user above the ads, it has to be interesting for the user or it will simply be ignored completely. Online users are very aware and critical, almost merciless… a crappy ad can result in a site being closed in seconds. I’d like to cover some of the factors that can harm your website.

Design mistakes with ads

Web users are more intelligent, so don’t treat them like idiots.

Users that are browsing the web are in a state of heightened awareness and with set goals, something that is the complete opposite to television users. The frustration that comes with years of trying to navigate website designs to get to content have made users very critical and desensitized to cheap advertising methods. Advertisers need to be aware that a sense of respect and smart campaigning is important on the web.

Treating new media like old media

This is a common mistake amongst many advertisers since they assume their old media methods apply to the web. They think of ad-funding as something that is done by paying per head (assuming that if a site gets 10,000 visitors that all 10,000 are actually taking notice of the ad) when the real value is in unique click-throughs and several other factors. Using phrases like “SALE” and “FREE” and “HOT OFFER” creates a lot of cynicism online since the web is riddled with these ineffective ad techniques and advertisers should also be conscious about this.

Not using targeted ads

An internet user is most likely visiting a page for a purpose, and whatever that purpose is the ads that accompany that document or video, should have something in common to the content you are viewing. If you are visiting a blog on web development you are most likely going to be interested in seeing ads that can be beneficial to you and not bothersome like those famous ‘quick’ graduation and smiley e-mail ads that pollute the web.

Not considering ads as part of your design

In most design processes ads are never considered as part of the initial design. A webmaster would copy and paste ad code after their site is completed into any open space they can find, usually destroying the intended composition. If the ad you are displaying is not consistent in color and overall positioning of elements on your layout you are sacrificing the design and performance of your site. If your menu paragraph text, for example, has a specific styling and you are using text ads you should consider styling them the same way. Keeping this kind of consistency will not only benefit the appeal of your design but improve the click-through rates of your ads.

Placement of ads

Placement is one of the largest factors in what can make or break a site. You see many sites that pop a few ads right at the top of a page, in-between paragraphs, between menus and crucial navigation components etc. It is important to realise that over-exposure, trickery and accidental click-throughs will only be effective to those once off visitors. Your returning visitors will soon become frustrated and move on - those are the visitors that actually matters when it comes to real growth that is spread through word of mouth, positive public opinions and so forth. It is best to clearly indicate what is content and where the ads are whilst keeping the balance and harmony in the design, it is a difficult thing to achieve but is worth the time spent on planning and preparation.

Encouraging ad blindness

The bombardment of ads during an average web user’s browsing experience everyday is constant; for this reason many users have become blinded to the sight of ads. It is something of a subconscious reaction to over-exposure and is a common occurrence in the human mind. We get used to seeing something everyday and eventually become unaware of it’s importance and/or existence. (eg. when you walk/drive to work everyday and pass the same building eventually you become blind towards it.) Imagine you have a sponsored advert from a software company displayed on a static location and your users view it on a daily basis, you could expect them to eventually avoid your ad space completely even if it changes. Blindness can be avoided by applying certain rules: Moderation, Relevance, Placement and, of course, consideration towards the users end goals and time. Sometimes however there is not much you can do about ad blindness, it comes with the package of web marketing. People find other avenues of making money ,like affiliations, that are not seen as ads and thus not as affected by ad blindness.

Bright colors, pop-ups and animations

I’ve mentioned before that users have a lack of tolerance and are almost merciless towards anything that gets in their way of content. Distracting a user by weighing a site design so that a user’s eye pulls towards the bright colors of ads can result in a site being closed by the user. Any kind of distraction that puts ads above content is bad practice, like flickering colors, sounds and other methods of getting the user’s attention. The general rule is to never shove an advertisement in a visitors face, your user will think your only goal is to make money and that your content comes second.. you shouldnt be expecting him/her to return any time soon.

Conclusion

There are so many factors that come into play which can harm or benefit the way you use ads on your site. The important thing to understand is that if you show respect to your visitors and keep the focus on content you are probably already doing a good job. We’re living in a time where everyone can publish adverts without financial commitment. It’s a time where most of the internet is dominated with “copy paste advertising”, zero consideration, zero planning and one goal - to turn in a profit. Show your users you are not one of those people by making an effort.

Other sites with related content:
- 17 Most Common PPC Mistakes Web Marketers Make
- Top 10 Internet Advertising Mistakes
- Ads Are Here To Stay: Planning For Ad Placement
- Death of advertising web banner and it’s design
- Will Plain-Text Ads Continue to Rule?
- Ad Blindness Is Nothing New … and it’s No Surprise Google Is Seeing It!
- Eyetracking Shows Web Audience Ignores Ads
- Banner Blindness, Human Cognition and Web Design
- Ad blindness