Can Ads Be As Fun As Duolingo?
My Thoughts on Ads Frequency, Messaging, and Format
The smart people at Duolingo got me hooked recently. I’m checking the app every night and morning, before and after sleep. Why? Because of an activity leaderboard where my friends can also see my score!
With this intense usage, I’m up on the board — but I’m also seeing a boatload of ads. Since I like Duolingo so much, I wonder, can the Ads experience in Duolingo (and apps in general) be fun and cool like the app itself?
Let me start by saying Duolingo has done a few things very well, such as:
✅What Works: Ads Disclosure
Duolingo spells it out loud:
This is a helpful reminder. Of course, every Netizen knows ads are paying for the Internet - but I don’t always remember that when the screen changes and I get disrupted. This message reminds me, ‘Ok, I’m actually doing something useful here.’ Watching ads is a patriotic duty to my free favorite app.
🔥What could even be better: change this message to something funny/different, as it is always the same no matter how many ads I have watched. How about letting me brag a bit about myself, like:
‘Your ad viewing helps us run 3 servers today!’ (I’m just imagining!).
🛑 What Doesn’t Work: High Ad Frequency
I’m seeing the same ads, again and again. Below are two exactly same ads I saw within 5 minutes of each other.
I can only project why:
- Supply: not many advertisers are buying ads to have enough variety
- Targeting: advertisers are probably putting too restrictive target on a certain demographics, leading to people in this group seeing all the targeted ads and nothing else.
🔥 What could be better: add strict frequency capping rule, for an example, no more than 2 similar ads within 5 minutes of each other (or 5 sequences which ads are shown after exercises — I would even say within a day!)
If I’m just browsing a news site, seeing the same ads twice isn’t as bad. On an attention grabbing app like Duolingo, I’m really looking at the screen and the ad image, so repetitive ads are easy to spot and frankly boring.
🛑What Doesn’t Work: Ambiguous Message
Advertisers know that most people won’t click on ads. Industry averages are around 1–2%. Yet the majority of ad are designed for people to click on.
They don’t usually have much information at all. Look at the example below. Tell me if you know who and what is advertising?
It is some kind of free class, huh? But what? Hair and styling? And who is offering it?
(BTW, it is Hackbright Academy coding class, they use the same Facebook ads).
🔥 What could be better: real mobile app creatives. Too often I see vague ads taken from elsewhere, most likely Facebook.
But Facebook mobile creatives ≠ in-app creatives.
Facebook has context, name of the advertiser, likes and links. They also enforce a strict rule favoring mostly image and minimum text. But that might not work in standalone in-app environment, out of context. You have a chance of impressing people, please create a clear message with useful information.
🛑What I Wish For: New Ads Format
Although the Internet has revolutionize publishing, banner ads essentially stay the same. This Heineken ad from the 30s can run on today’s literary journal page. With some color and an added link to Heineken.com, of course.
Maybe display ads work really well — why change? Book format hasn’t changed for years.
But I believe that there is room for improvement.
How about ads that are exciting? Ads that are native to the app format rather than a strange insert into my mobile experience. The mobile phone is not a static surface like a newspaper, can we use that please?
Just a wild idea: Duolingo rewards me points for answering questions. Is there a way to do that with ads too? Guessing what brand is it? Guessing what content? Give me points for watching more ads?
I know that this asks for a lot of investment. It requires big upfront spending, and is not easy to validate. But it will make my ad experience so much better! If I like your ad, I will be more likely to convert. Your CAC (cost-of-acquisition) will go down!
Let’s make ads better, shall we?
Opinions are of my own and not of my employer.
