Wednesday, January 16, 2008

Do Pop-Up Ads Work?

Everyone hates pop-up ads, right? At least everyone who voted in one of my recent polls does. And if we all hate pop-up ads then they don't work very well and we shouldn't use them on our websites, right?

But wait a minute. Many internet marketing experts keep reciting, "Pop-up ads work!" And not only do they say the words, they also keep coming out with new forms of "unstoppable" pop-up ad software.

So what's the real truth about pop-up ads? Do they or don't they work?

The truth is ...

When done correctly pop-up ads do work. Unfortunately, like everything else in internet marketing, they must be used correctly because if you misuse or abuse the use of pop-up ads, they can hurt your business.

The easiest way to explain the correct use of pop-up ads is to look at why we hate them and fix it.

  • There are too many of them.
    Don't annoy your site visitor by having pop-up ads on every page they visit! Only use 1 pop-up ad per visitor (not 1 per page)

  • They hide part of the content you want to read.
    Keep the size of your pop-up ads reasonable and try not to cover the text your visitor is trying to read. Also, make them easy to close.

  • They appear at inappropriate times and interrupt your train of thought.
    Either use a delayed or an exit pop-up ad that offers something extra after the visitor has had a chance to see what's available. Just be careful to make sure an exit pop-up doesn't appear if they do take the desired action on your page.

  • They are intrusive and offer you nothing new.Effective pop-up ads offer an additional benefit to the site visitor like an added bonus, a free report or an extra discount.

When used correctly, pop-up ads do work. And 1 of the very first unblockable pop-up ad makers was "Magic Subscriber." It doesn't create fancy pop-up ads but you can get it for free inside the member area.

Just remember, if you use pop-up ads do it correctly.

To Your Success,
Susan

P.S. If you're afraid to use pop-up ads or are dead set against using them here are 4 alternatives to pop-up ads:

  1. peel-away ads Version 1 or Version 2


  2. ribbon ads


  3. impact popups


  4. context ads

I own and have used peel-away Version 1, ribbon ads, impact popups and the exit pop-up software referenced in the article. While they all worked I thought impact popups was the easiest to use and ribbon ads was a close second. The others weren't too hard to use but did require more work.


P.P.S. If you have any thoughts about these types of ads feel free to leave a comment.

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