Going Out of your Brain
You know you have gone to your favorite popular website and seen this junk at the bottom of a page staring at you like an unwanted billboard or the pop up ads of the 90s or early 2000s.
Trust me that is just a picture! And one of those wonderful companies that provides us these distracting ads: Outbrain.
Now Outbrain is not stupid, these ads are getting hits and brands will keep paying to get on them. However, as you can see based on this one ad, there is no focus. This has been the big complaint on these companies, among questionable and potentially adult content on very popular sites.
So now you know all about the company like Outbrain. Something very questionable happened in April and will soon be affecting everyone.
Outbrain will soon be launching their wonderfully poignant advertisements into your Facebook Messenger. Yes you heard that right, you are going to be chatting away and boom next bubble is not from your friend but from Outbrain telling you “Hey check out this article on Hoof and Mouth Disease!”
This movement will have disastrous effects on Facebook Messenger specifically but a huge outcry on Outbrain because if they want to be a good brand, they are going to attach their name to these messages. Why would someone continue to use FB Messenger if these distracting ads are on it? It shows the hubris of Facebook thinking people will continue to use Messenger with the advertisements within the chat windows.
I don’t blame Outbrain at all. What a great coup it was to get your ads on Facebook Messenger? However, for Outbrain to be a great brand, they have to reform their tactics
1. Better targeting
Their ads are all over the place when I go, nothing is focused on the topic of the article I view or even targeted to my demographic. Which leads into the next tactic…
2. Opt In or Out
With all of these sponsored ads, the only way for Outbrain to collect any form of metrics has been on clicks. Why not allow viewers to state if something isn’t relevant, offensive, etc. much like Twitter does?
3. Surveys
Another worthwhile endeavor for Outbrain and their clients would be to take general or specific surveys. Number 2 would give Outbrain and their clients some information, but limited answers won’t give you much. Surveys could really give insight into improving.
I am sorry Outbrain, but you have to do at the very least 2 of the above 3 to really transform your company. Right now you are the bane of the internet, but I do see what you are doing to improve advertisements. However, you are no better than a banner ad right now. You must reform or competition will be doing those tactics instead of you.
Originally published at brndbl.tumblr.com.
