Influence of ads on user experience
Some years ago, during those days when television had its dominance over any other media of entertainment, people used to consider digital ads appearing in between their favorite shows as an inevitable disturbance. Today, people are more engaging with online platforms. Brands wanted to meet their customers at the place where they are spending most. Advertisements also started appearing Online. Any advertising that takes place in Online can be considered as digital advertising. Almost, in every digital platform we are getting ads of different products and services. Remember, the transverse of unwelcome popup ads while surfing the net. The flashy banners and random sidebars appearing in between the content. Ads were always considered as intercepting.
Online ads have matured a lot since those days, users got the privilege to skip or block the ads appearing. Also, Ads became hyper targeted. As social media platforms picked up steam in the mid 2000s, advertisers sought a way to integrate ad content in a way that was both effective and non-intrusive. Marketers wanted a plan of action to reach younger internet users who were increasingly unswayed by banner ads and spending most of their internet time on social networks. Ads became personalized also.
Today in every social media platform and search engines where users spend most of their time online has different kinds of ads. Are these ads serving their purpose? Or are they simply intercepting the overall user experience in those platforms?
To know how users are getting affected by the ads appearing in online platforms a research was conducted.
Approach 1
The first approach was focused on the users.
But actually the Consumers have more control over the ads. Ad opportunities and ad-blocking & skipping have risen in parallel and the marketers need to ensure the ads that do reach the user are having impact and relevant. Users are using ad blocking plugins also. So the right way to approach the issue was by focusing on Advertisers and UX designers
Approach 2
The major challenges for the advertisers were to show the right ads at the right time to the right person in the right format. Also, Ads should not intercept the user flow and at the same time should gain the users attention.
They have to make ads more interactive and related to users so that it won’t hinder overall user experience.
Strategies followed
The common strategies followed today by advertisers are:
- Frequency : Insert an ad after several numbers of feeds/news.
- Creative look of an ads (well known as native ads)
- Special ads : intercepts the linear flow
- Size : The bigger ads, the more it would be distracting.
- Personalization : know people better
Objectives
- How much user is engaged with ads?
- Are right ads meeting right person at right time in right format?
- Are user aware about pattern of ads?
- When same kind of ads are appearing in different platform, chance for user to go?
- To what extend users are liking ads? Are their experience getting hindered?
Research
A primary research was conducted on the user group of age between 18 and 30 focusing on Instagram and Google search engine. An attitudinal and behavioral research was conducted to collect information based on what people say and what people do.
User persona and scenario
Findings
The findings from the research were:
- Most of the users spend more than 2 hrs online.
- Most users don’t care about personalisation of ads.
- Though google search ads are for saving people’s time, they are not serving their purpose.
- People are least engaged with search ads and mostly neglect them.
- Most of the cases search ads are failing to meet the right users.
- Most of the users identify the search ads and don’t go for them.
- Users never find the appearance of search ads appealing.
- Users find most of instagram ads as relevant and engaging.
More than the data gathered during the research, the interpretation of the data were important. The major insights that I got through my research were :
The pain points are :
- The search ads are having more text content and won’t grab attention.
- The ads are perceived to have promotional contents.
- The Ad symbol tempts to skip.
- In most of cases, ads are irrelevant and not related to search word
The opportunities which I was able to find out are:
- Though some relevant ads are appearing, they fails to grab the user’s attention.
- Most of ads intercept the user’s purpose.
- User is not going for ads because of the preset of mind that they are irrelevant.
- User lacks an interaction with the ads.
Iceberg model
Considering some major events into account in the same topic (for a comparison only) and analysis was done using the iceberg model.
The last event considered is different from the others because it was not problematic in nature. It was an attempt to identify the elements which helped to create a tangible impact by considering a positive event other than considering a problem and digging into the causes. Analysis of that event helped to find out the factors which led to the impact.
Iceberg model helped to organize the data in a structured way and also it helped to structure the thoughts by identifying the dilemma and clarifying the issue.
Insights from the iceberg model
- Most of the users are unaware of option to personalise ads since the option to turn it ON is hidden
- Users skip search ads because they consider them irrelevant or having promotional content.
- Advertisers believe that there is a high chance for users to go for top results. So suggestions are given at top.
- Users keep less trust on results with ad symbols because of their negative mind set about ads.
- Users are interacting with and spending time on instagram ads because they are getting content relatable to them and not even recognised as ads in first look.
Comparison
Insights from the research and the iceberg model were almost similar. The insights from the design research were more data oriented and validated through data collected. The insights from the iceberg are mostly based on the interpretation of behavior of people. But the iceberg model helps to organize the findings in a proper way and insights are readily available. It has different layers for an event and helps to easily analyse the facts behind it.
