I’ve read about how we that browse the web more than a few times a week have learned to “look past” banner ads and items the size of banner ads at the top of web pages. Similarly, animation has been proven to be more of a distraction than an attraction when it comes to have advertising on your site. But I’d have to say that the absolute least effective form of advertising on the web is pop-up windows.
I can tell you that as a web designer type guy, being asked to create a pop-up window is like asking the pope to pray to Mecca. And I can tell you that when I browse the web, if a pop-up window comes up when I’m viewing a web page (whether it be when I enter the page or when I leave the page, as seems to be the recent trend), I close it before anything even loads. Heaven forbid that it was actually something important — if it looks like an ad, I ignore it (unless it’s from a site that is known to have properly targeted advertising based on the page being viewed). -ram
Posted in Consumer Commentary