Are Pop Up Ads Really Bad?

[Nomad]

The most common answer is YES!
Pop up ads is intrusive and even the creator of pop up ads, Ethan Zuckerman is reported to have apologized for creating pop up ads. However, I think pop up ads are also one of the best low cost advertising method. By spending $5-$10 you will be able to get 1000 impressions on your websites form real people. It might not be good for monetization but it is certainly good for advertising. What do you think?

 

[Ravenfreak]

Pop up ads can be malicious, this is where lots of malware usually get added to and unfortunately sometimes those not aware of the dangers of adware may accidentally click on pop up ads. Of course not all of them are bad, I'm weary of them and will never click on a pop up ad even if it's for a site I trust.

 

[Jason]

Ethan Zuckerman is reported to have apologized for creating pop up ads. However

It's not forgivable 😂

 

[Nomad]

Pop up ads can be malicious, this is where lots of malware usually get added to and unfortunately sometimes those not aware of the dangers of adware may accidentally click on pop up ads. Of course not all of them are bad, I'm weary of them and will never click on a pop up ad even if it's for a site I trust.

I have experienced this myself. Many years ago, I was using Propeller ads, I was earning well but the anti virus I used frequently warned me when I visited my own site. Therefore, I had to remove propeller ads.

 

[MrDawn]

It's not forgivable 😂

For sure lol. I can't stand pop ups at all. They cause so much malware, it's insane.

 

[Shortie]

I have always found pop-up ads on any site to be intrusive and annoying. I can never understand why so many websites have these active unless they are looking to be annoying or even greedy when it comes to monetization of their site.

I find that pop-up ads can be off-putting and tend to turn people away from the site rather than encourage them to stay.

 

[Jason]

What's going on now is pop-under ads. What do you all think of them? I know some companies are making money by selling cheap traffic coming from them.

 

[Nomad]

What's going on now is pop-under ads. What do you all think of them? I know some companies are making money by selling cheap traffic coming from them.

Advertising your site through pop up ads can be great. Because it is cheap and it is also legit. However, you cannot expect conversions because people block these ads or do not interact with these ads.

 

[Jason]

Advertising your site through pop up ads can be great. Because it is cheap and it is also legit. However, you cannot expect conversions because people block these ads or do not interact with these ads.

Do you feel pop-unders are better than pop-ups?

 

[Kyng]

If your goal is to irritate your users so much that they go elsewhere - then yes, I guess pop-up ads are good.

Otherwise, I'd just stay away from them!

 

[Jason]

What I was getting at was that pop-ups are extinct, but pop-unders have survived. What do you think of them?

 

[Nomad]

Do you feel pop-unders are better than pop-ups?

Comparatively? Yes! Pop under opens in the background, where as pop up opens up in foreground, thus, making it more intrusive. I feel that using pop up or pop under as an advertiser is better than using them as publisher.

 

[Jason]

Comparatively? Yes! Pop under opens in the background, where as pop up opens up in foreground, thus, making it more intrusive. I feel that using pop up or pop under as an advertiser is better than using them as publisher.

In my experience, it's very low-quality traffic. People don't really want to go to your site as much as someone typing in a search term. However, you can't totally discount it. I mean, you can't really say what's on someone's mind. They might see a pop-under and like the subject.

 

[Nomad]

Pop up/under traffic is human traffic, it is better that buying traffic from traffic seller or using software to generate traffic, or even using incentivized traffic like paid to click. When someone visits the website where you are running pop up ad campaign and clicks on anywhere on the page your website will appear, so it is real traffic. It is safe for all ad networks you might be using on your site. Well, it might be called low quality traffic because conversions are rare.

 

[Jason]

or even using incentivized traffic

I don't know. I suppose that could work under certain conditions. Maybe you could target people with a strong likelihood to buy what is offered.

 

[Nomad]

I believe so. If you are offering something valuable and target your ads to the people who might actually interested in what you are offering, you might get conversion. If there were no conversions on these ad networks, why would they continue to exist?

 

[freelancermariagrace]

I'm not a huge fan of pop-up ads. They can be quite annoying, especially when they keep appearing in the middle of something important. While it can be advantageous, excessive ads are not good. What makes pop-up ads even worse is that many of them are scams and can potentially harm your computer.

 

[Shawn Gossman]

Yes and no.

Ad popups, yes. Annoying as hell and it will stop me from coming back.

Newsletter popups, no. I took my newsletter from 60 to 1,500 members in less than a year with a portion of that thanks to the newsletter popup.

 

[Nomad]

Yes and no.

Ad popups, yes. Annoying as hell and it will stop me from coming back.

Newsletter popups, no. I took my newsletter from 60 to 1,500 members in less than a year with a portion of that thanks to the newsletter popup.

I think when you show subscription box as a pop up, it will encourage visitors to take action compared to having a static subscription box on the sidebar or footer.
By the way, have you ever promoted anything through pop up or pop under ads?

 

[Shawn Gossman]

By the way, have you ever promoted anything through pop up or pop under ads?

In the past, back when popups were more popular. I've used just about every ad format. But the ones that I find annoying the most as a user are the ones I try to stay away from as a webmaster.