Pop Up Ads Oversights That Make You Look Like a Rookie

Oct 12, 2017    |       10 min read

Rookies in any field have it tough. It gets tougher when you don’t know the rules or the necessary gems of wisdom that can propel you forward by leaps and bounds. Luckily, you are here now, and we can take a look at some aspects which will keep you from being considered a rookie when using and when earning with pop-up ads.

Getting people to take notice of you online, to take action on your call is very difficult with a tendency to get even more difficult. An amazing offer which cannot be passed up will guarantee that you will be noticed. These offers are followed by descriptive copies and an impeccable call-to-action pointing the customer perfectly in your and their desired direction. If you don’t target your audience correctly and set all of the creative pieces well, chances are you won’t be meeting your goal. One or two of these elements can make or break your conversion rates. With such pressure on your shoulders, you should try and avoid rookie mistakes. Read on to run from these mistakes even faster than Forrest Gump.

Missing out on pop-up ads

First and foremost, if you are not utilizing pop-up ads you are a rookie marketer. Second, if you are using them in the wrong way, you are a broke rookie marketer. With digital marketing budgets skyrocketing and rising each year, being left out of the conversation will only hurt your chances to earn a steady income online. The Importance of pop ads in general cannot be overstated. More information on the importance of pop ads and its earning potential can be found here.

Conversion rate

Conversions above everything else, this is the mantra of content producers. Appsumo claims that their e-mail pop-up ad helped them collect over 110,000 emails in just 30 days. Now that’s quite a conversion rate! Additionally, usertesting.com claims that a pop-up ad that they’re utilizing is the third biggest lead generator on their site. These numbers are incentive enough to dive into the pop-up ad world.

We could term pop-up ads as the best that interruption marketing has to offer. Similar to TV ad campaigns which stop viewers and show them products or services they might need, the pop-up ad briefly interrupts the browsing experience to either deepen or further enrich this experience by offering additional services. Some users might even enjoy the interaction that the ad provides, by clicking to close or either to follow the link that the ad provides.

Poor offer, poor execution

In the world of advertising, offer is king. If you have the right offer and the right audience, targeted at the correct sales funnel, you will get amazing results. If not, you will get poor results. You must make your offer stand out from the crowd but still be valid and relevant to your sales goals.

Headline

Headlines are a condensed idea that conveys your value proposition, the tip of the iceberg if you will, but enough to get prospects hooked. Keep the question: “Why should I care?” in mind when building your headline. Answering this question, you will answer what the offer means to the customer and why the customer should care about it. Mix art and science and you will have a good blueprint for amazing headlines. Check out these Buzzfeed headlines to learn what it takes to attract customers.

Ad description

Keep copy straightforward and simple. Roughly, you should keep the ad post to a maximum of 15 words, the link description should never be longer than 20 words. Think early days of Twitter and what made viral tweets stand out. Short and to the point, people enjoy succinct ideas, make sure yours are being liked and shared.

Misleading information

Never lie! Period. Though it sounds clear cut, some ads that you come across will be lies. Intentionally misleading users through your ads will not create a very positive impression on your customers. Baiting and switching might work in the short term but you are losing so much in the long term. Keep it simple and truthful.

Bad mobile user experience

Yes with the rise of mobile devices you will need to cater for the mobile traffic as well. Pop-up ads are probably least desirable on mobile devices, but you need to change that. Initially, the rise of pop-up ads came through the desktop where the point and click scheme made it easy to avoid or interact with the pop-up. In this new, mobile era, the pop-up ad makes it difficult to enjoy the browsing experience. Being lazy when it comes to the design of these pop-up ads will ensure that your users will frantically scroll around your site with a huge, un-optimized pop-up ad and will eventually give up and bounce from your site. Uxmag claims that pop-up ads are just not meant for mobile devices. We would agree if we’re talking about badly optimized ones, and ones which don’t follow the above mentioned principles. Don’t be a rookie, follow the above principles.

The Takeaway

For those scrolling down to the end of a blog post to extract the gems of wisdom, we have prepared a special little treat for you. If you do decide to incorporate a pop-up into your site the user experience must be your guiding principle. Follow these three important pieces of information:

  • Great pop-ups demand action and decision at a key moment during the experience with the site.
  • Great pop-ups offer useful advice.
  • Great pop-ups focus customers on a relevant piece of information.

You won’t win any awards for the most lovable marketer by utilizing pop-up ads, and even the best pop-up ads will be disregarded and even shunned. However, if you perform all of these steps correctly, you won’t increase your site’s bounce rate, and you might even end up with a high conversion rate and some extra money in your pocket.