Video Ads

[jsteele]

Over the past year traditional display advertising of the sort we use has been producing significantly less revenue than previously. As such, we are earning less than we have in previous years and have been exploring ways of making up for the drop in revenue. With two kids in college, now is not a particularly good time to earn less. I've been reluctant to use video ads, but am now willing to at least try it out. We will probably introduce such advertising in the very near future. For the moment, I invite those who are interested to test our development site and give your opinion about the advertising. Please use this URL to test the video ads. FYI, for the moment these are not real ads, but simply content to use for testing:

https://www.dcurbanmom.com/mobile/forums/list.page

Don't worry about the individual ads, but rather their placement and impact on the user experience. If we introduce these ads will your reaction be:

1) The ads are great and improve the user experience;
2) Neutral, no real opinion;
3) Don't love them, but can live with them;
4) Really don't like them and wish they would go away; or
5) Organizing a mob to burn down our house and salt the land on which it was built.

[Anonymous]

As long as they don't have sound, I can live with them because they don't overlap with the text.

[Anonymous]

This is an honest question. Has anyone, in the history of ever, said that ads are great? In any medium? I think the most you can hope for would be ‘It’s a necessary evil and I will begrudgingly accept it’.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:This is an honest question. Has anyone, in the history of ever, said that ads are great? In any medium? I think the most you can hope for would be ‘It’s a necessary evil and I will begrudgingly accept it’.

Yes, "necessary evil" is the best I am hoping for. I am expecting far worse.

[Anonymous]

I actually was coming to see if there was a post about this. I find them extremely distracting and annoying. I’m probably in the 4 camp. 4.5 if I was in a bad mood!

[Anonymous]

NP. I just tried the demo site. I didn't mind the videos within the page itself too much, but the pop up I have to x out of numerous times is highly annoying. I'm assuming pop-up blockers won't be allowed.

That being said, you gotta do what you gotta do. 🤷🏻‍♀️

[Anonymous]

I guess I’m a 3.5. But only one per page. When there are more than one videos that I need to close at a time, I’ll start avoiding a website.

[Anonymous]

I'm at 4-5. It's not the video, it's the placement. It's always below the OP until I scroll down. I wish it would start on the bottom or side.

[jsteele]

Anonymous wrote:I'm at 4-5. It's not the video, it's the placement. It's always below the OP until I scroll down. I wish it would start on the bottom or side.

I agree with you and originally place the video on the side. Then I learned that Google doesn't allow video ads there. That restriction makes no sense to me, especially because this ad partner is not Google. But apparently a lot of advertisers use Google and they could advertise if the video player was located on the side (the small player at the bottom is a different story).

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:NP. I just tried the demo site. I didn't mind the videos within the page itself too much, but the pop up I have to x out of numerous times is highly annoying. I'm assuming pop-up blockers won't be allowed.

That being said, you gotta do what you gotta do. 🤷🏻‍♀️

For the generation raised on geocities and myspace, video ads are easy enough to ignore. You gotta do what you gotta do.

[Anonymous]

3
I’m pretty used to those ads.

[Anonymous]

Not too annoying, I'm so used to multiple video ads on other sites blocking my content all the time lately that this one, not really blocking anything, was refreshing! I guess it did pop up at the bottom right of the page if I scrolled down which I do not like because if I scroll past a video that should be an indication that I don't want to watch it. It was easy to X that one closed though. Also, now I know how to tie a tie!

[jsteele]

These ads just went live. So, let the protests commence, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Not crazy about them, but it’s fine.

[Anonymous]

They cover posts on my phone