PopUp Doomsday — Good for You, Bad for Business
Somehow Google’s big announcement has gone relatively unnoticed in the world of digital marketing. Probably because they used the word “interstitials” instead of popups, and no one knows what that means.
On-site popups are among the highest converting marketing tactics deployed today. Those annoying and ridiculous images that take over your screen work well. Some businesses like Yelp or Trip Advisor get you to download their apps when viewing the page on mobile web. Others like Under Armour or Performance Bicycle try to capture your email for marketing purposes.
Google defends the death of the popup because it ruins our experience as customers. This is true. Popups are really, really, freaking annoying. Google’s aggressive stance on popups benefits users because site owners will be forced to deliver relevant content in smoother interfaces going forward. However, the businesses that rely on popups shouldn’t be so happy. They’re about to feel a lot of pain
Every time Google changes its search algorithm, businesses better pay attention. Go to similarweb.com and take a look at the top sources of traffic of any website, and I promise organic search is extremely high up there if not the highest. Google also has massive market share in total searches and with one adjustment can erode >33% of total traffic in an instant.
What makes matters even worse for businesses seeking to address this problem is the holiday season is about to begin. With 2016 budgets allocated, a holiday season starting in October, and existing vendor contracts that might be in the way, most businesses will have just September to deal with those constraints. Or if you’re a procrastinator, wait for the few days between Christmas and the January 10th deadline. That means one measly month to source a new vendor, demand updates from the existing vendor, or reprioritizing internal IT resources to develop a new solution.
If the vendor doesn’t have the right tech, this fix will be very expensive. Building and testing new technology is not an option, and forcing the customer to pay for the updates may be required. But even if all of the vendor’s customers agree to pay, the vendor enters a different resource crunch. The vendors that claim they will change out each popup one-by-one will not have enough time, people power, or dollars to rejigger the popups.
The bright side to events like these is opportunity. “Popup Doomsday” forces all online marketers to come up with new more personalized and intuitive solution. eCommerce needs a new way to promote and drive conversions online without the use of popups — something unobtrusive and seamless to the core experience. Who will be the first to fulfill this need?
I know our clients are safe. How about you?
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If you’re interested in what we are up to, click here: popupdoomsday.com
