Not All KPIs Are The Same

Not all KPIs carry the same weight.
Focus on KPIs that really impact your business goals! The high number of popups and floating ads on many websites results from a flawed understanding of online advertising. Some marketing agencies emphasize and sell “impressions” as the most relevant KPIs.
Learn why this is not the best approach.

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Frustrating Ads

For a long time, while getting my daily dose of online news, I’ve been bothered by the overwhelming number of popups, invasive banners, and overlapping ads on the pages I was trying to read. I get that advertising is how the published pays for the news I’m reading. I’m not opposed to advertising. I’m a marketer, and I know too well how advertising works and keeps publishers alive.

Negative Impact of Bad Advertising

What truly frustrates me, and I believe many of you can relate, is the relentless approach of bombarding us with random banners without considering their relevance and our browsing experience. These intrusive ads disrupt our reading and hinder our ability to engage with the content. Those banners are accomplishing two negative results:

1. There are so many ads and so annoying that I have become completely bling to their content.
2. Some popups are particularly annoying for their persistent and pervasive appearance across all the websites I visit. Others are annoying because the “Close” button is so small or difficult to reach that I frequently accidentally open the advertiser’s landing page. The final result is that I sincerely hate those brands! As I see their logo or name, I immediately remember how nasty they have been with me, and I’m committed not to ever buying anything from them!

Why Companies Are Wasting Their Money

Why are so many companies spending money to provoke an adverse reaction from their potential customers?

The high number of popups and floating ads on many websites results from a widespread flawed understanding of online advertising. Some marketing agencies love to emphasize and sell “impressions” as the most relevant KPIs. Why? Because generating and then selling millions of “impressions” to clients with limited marketing knowledge is easy and profitable.

How To Do Better

Impressions are a significant KPI only if you are working on the first step of a long customer-journey strategy to intentionally target users at the very top of the funnel by targeting a specific and well-defined audience with relevant and informative ads. If this is not your marketing strategy, ask your marketing agency to reconsider the focus and budget on “impressions” and focus instead on KPIs closer to your business goals, such as downloads, visitors, and conversions.