Ads in Gmail’s New Inbox
Understanding “sponsored emails”
Gmail recently released a new redesign of inbox. You may have noticed the new tabbed layout with three main categories like - “primary”, “social” and “promotions”. Gmail automatically assigns incoming emails (based factors like content, sender etc.) to different tabs. There has been lot of discussion whether this layout is useful to end-users or not. Personally, I welcome this change. My inbox always felt cluttered prior to redesign however due to auto-categorization feature in inbox I’m finding myself on top of every email and it’s turning out to be my time saver.
Gmail sends all the promotional emails (offers, deals etc.) under promotions tab and it is getting lot of attention from various consumer groups,and marketers. The reason is not separate tab for promotional emails. Rather Gmail is showing ads that look like normal emails under this tab. These emails could be described as “sponsored emails”.
Surprisingly, Gmail/Google didn’t inform anyone about these ads. One gmail user tweeted about them after noticing ads in his inbox and it felt like all hell broke loose on the Internet.
Moreover, there has been limited response from Google on these ads. Google spokesperson recently spoke with AdAge to give some insights into these ads:
The ads — spotted a month ago — replace the ones that were pegged atop the Gmail inbox under the old design, said a Google spokesperson. If users have disabled the promotions tab (a way to turn off the new ads), then the ad running atop the regular inbox, now dubbed “primary,” will return.
A Google spokesperson said the ads aren’t exactly the same as emails because they don’t take up inbox storage and aren’t deleted like messages. For the most part, the new ads act like normal inbox ads. When people click the ads, they will either be directed to an advertiser’s landing page or the ad will expand within Gmail and display some sort of visual graphic like what might otherwise run in a marketer’s email. The latter functionality has been around for at least a year through the regular Gmail ad types, the spokesperson said.
It seems like lot of Gmail users are concerned about these ads, which is understandable. Based on my understanding, users have a couple of major concerns:
- Will Gmail send any spammy email disguised as ads?
- Will Gmail show those ads in my “primary” inbox?
Since I run advertising startup, I thought I will chime in with my opinion on them.
Are they duping users with spammy emails that are disguised as ads?
I don’t think so. These “sponsored emails” are marked in yellow background and there is a clear mention of word “ad” with each such email. In fact, I think it’s a smart move from Gmail ads team. Users will be most likely visiting promotions tab with the expectations of offers/deals etc. So presenting them with promotional material in form of ads (at that location) makes perfect sense.
Email has been fraught with problems arising from email spam. Majority of the spam emails contain marketing materials and URLs to outside content. So I’m not surprised that users are calling these ads as spammy. And I also believe this will be a major challenge for Google in terms of convincing users that these ads are not email spam. A possible solution may be educating users about these ads and addressing users concerns publicly. Additionally, making these ads contextual and super relevant may help to allay some fears.
Will Gmail show these ads in the “primary” inbox?
It’s highly unlikely that Google will show these ads in “primary” inbox. There will be significant backlash if they decide to do so. Hence, I don’t think they will be moving these ads to “primary” inbox. Furthermore as discussed earlier, in “promotions” tab you are setting users expectations to promotional content. So likelihood of users clicking on these ads is significantly higher in “promotions” tab.
To sum up, I think it’s a really smart move from Google and these ads are necessary for Google to keep Gmail free for majority of users. If you find these ads annoying, there is a paid option too.
