Annoying ads on websites may actually be bad for business

A new study has revealed that this way of forcing customer's attention through annoying online ads may actually be bad for business.

Researchers Daniel G. Goldstein, Siddharth Suri and Fernando Diaz (Microsoft Research), R. Preston McAfee (Microsoft), and Matthew Ekstrand-Abueg (Northeastern University) said that annoying ads are interesting because they both make and cost money for publishers. They make money because advertisers pay publishers to run ads and cost money when annoyed users abandon a site, leaving the publisher with less advertising revenue.

Study participants were asked to perform online tasks, some of which exposed participants to web pages with annoying advertisements. An ad's "annoyingness" was determined by factors such as whether it had too much animation, was poorly designed, or had been placed by a company having a questionable reputation.

The study found that even though it would have meant more pay, participants were far less willing to remain on a web page if it contained an annoying advertisement. Participants also did not remember the content very well on pages that contained annoying advertisements.

The authors conclude that any short-term revenue brought in by annoying advertisements is likely outweighed by the negative long-term effects.

The study was published in the Journal of Marketing Research.