Jakob Nielsen and his group have long documented that advertising in online media carries a cost in terms of usability. A recent longitudinal study quantifies the effect.
Summary: Increased advertising caused a 2.8% drop in use of an Internet service. The full magnitude of the lost business was only clear after a full year.
We have long documented that advertising in online media carries a user-experience cost:
- Users find many online advertising techniques highly annoying — that attitude has remained constant since we first reported it in 2004.
- Because online ads are so irritating, users have evolved banner blindness as a defense mechanism to reduce this annoyance. (Also a finding that has remained true for decades, meaning that it's not likely to change anytime soon.)
- Even worse (from a web-design perspective), ads poison the well for honest designers seeking to boost the visual design of useful page elements: anything with an overly fancy look may be unjustly taken for an ad and also ignored by users.
[...] Reference
Jason Huang, David H. Reiley, and Nickolai M. Riabov (April 21, 2018): Measuring Consumer Sensitivity to Audio Advertising: A Field Experiment on Pandora Internet Radio. Available at https://davidreiley.com/papers/PandoraListenerDemandCurve.pdf (warning: PDF file).
From: Annoying Online Ads Do Cost Business.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Monday May 28 2018, @10:16PM (1 child)
"Let's also not forget, sites that put up really obnoxious or intrusive advertising don't give a crap about their visitors and are
just a small step frominjecting malware."FTFY. There's no "small steps" if it regularly happens.
(Score: 2, Interesting) by anubi on Tuesday May 29 2018, @06:47AM
Just go ahead and run your script blockers. Sure, you can't see some businesses... but do you really trust the businesses who are demanding you do stuff that you know is risky and comes out of your hide if they decide that once they have your pants down, they won't prank you?
As far as I am concerned, trust is paramount when deciding to spend a buck, because I know once the buck goes across the counter, it usually stays there, and if I will have to fight a bunch of attorneys to get it back, and most likely lose, if their business model is based on pulling fast ones.
Just like a kid can ruin his reputation fast by attempting shoplifting, a business can ruin their reputation with me by requiring me to do risky things, talking trickytalk, or long winded contracts that look more like a tax form full of little disclaimers in tiny print that legally override what the big print claims. Once they have shown their hand as relying on trickytalk and confusion, I have to think long and hard: Is there anyway I can avoid dealing with them? Some businesses, you can't - they weasel themselves in so their services are required for you to get a tickbox ticked on some governmentally required form, but others who don't have you caught up in some sort of obligation, its as easy as walking or clicking away.
If a business starts out the relationship with trickytalk, confusion, and lies - they've already tipped their hand - you know where this is going. Do you really want this mess in your life? Get the hell outta there! Let some other ignoramus fall into their web of deceptions.
"Prove all things; hold fast that which is good." [KJV: I Thessalonians 5:21]