When you look at an online ad, there is a pretty good chance you will find it annoying. Even the good ads always seem to be in the consumer’s way.
For instance, I’m trying to find an answer to a question I have and some darn ad pops up in my feed. It disrupts the flow of what I’m reading. Right then and there I get a feeling of annoyance towards the business that made the ad. I may even take a moment to acknowledge which brand it is, to ensure I never buy from them again. Harsh, but true.
Many small-time companies run ads, and I can only say it’s the wrong marketing strategy. It’s certainly one way to gain exposure, but it often backfires if done wrong (and most times wrong is what happens). No I don’t want to hear about your discount sale. I want you to help me. I want you to be useful if you are going to interrupt my day. Not useful? Then don’t bother me.
Now the top two advertising platforms in the world are Facebook and Google. They have convinced us that you have to pay to play the game of business these days. They want to make sure that you spend advertising dollars to grow your business, just like stock brokers want you to day trade for “wealth-building”. The reality is, the brokers always win. The more action you take on, the more the brokers earn. You are never guaranteed a win.
Most companies focus on noise when they should be focusing on where their noise takes us. If it takes us to a crappy landing page, as most ads do, then that will annoy us even more. Make the product better and maybe, just maybe, you will have a better chance of someone talking about you by word-of-mouth. If your product isn’t word-of-mouth-worthy, then fix that. Make or build something worth talking about. Avoid ads unless you have a major budget to throw money around. But even if you had the budget, people simply hate online ads.