According to nearly every survey going, users hate ads. All sorts of things annoy them – popups, sound, flashing etc. And when they’re not getting annoyed at ads, users are ignoring them. Banner ads, skyscrapers, MPUs, Google ads. They generate most site’s cashflow. but also jeapardise the readership. This is the dilemma the industry finds itself in.
UpMyStreet uses it’s ads subtly, by placing them inline with the contnet, making the user experience as pleasurable as possible. However, further research has shown that users don’t like getting confused between ads and content. So to help things, we’re putting an ad signifier above all our ads – a tiny marker that aids the user in identifying them as such.
This seems to be a relatively new development, and some examples are more awful looking than others.
Hopefully ours looks pretty good – it’s the one at the bottom below.