To be honest, I think banners are a good thing. Having banners on the site is an obvious way to earn money for the content you show for free.
That is the main reason why I do not have an ad blocker.
But the most recent developments in the Netherlands concern me. Banners tend to be bigger, heavier and worse, taking over control!
Today I saw a Sony banner. This banner break parts of the User Interface, slows down the site, causes scrolling problems in some browsers and of course, causes a lot of frustration with visitors due to all this.
Slow
Recently it just happens too often that I have to wait for a banner to load until a site is rendered. How can we solve this?
There are some possibilities, for instance, load the banner in an iframe. But banner agencies do not like this. They want to track the visitor, pushing the banner in an iframe will make sure they can’t. And as they decide the terms, this is not going to happen.
So there are 2 solutions left, the first: no banners at all. No.
The second: Lazy loading.
I saw a nice post on how to achieve lazy loading. This might be something which you can use to load the scripts banners use. I already asked a banner agency for input. At the moment they’ll react, I will update this post. At this moment they are having some troubles understanding that banners can load slow.
“Als het lang duurt voordat een banner ingeladen word, dan ligt dit niet aan de doubleclick server. De servers zijn snel genoeg en het materiaal is al meestal sneller ingeladen dan de site zelf.”
In English: When it takes a long time until a banner is loaded, this is not because of the doubleclick server. The servers are fast enough and the material is loaded faster than the site does in moest of the cases
I closely watched some sites and it seems like some banners are not blocking your content to load all the time, this means the advertising business is also taking steps to overcome loading problems.
One of those steps is offering a banner of only a few KB at first, and load the big fancy movie banner in that banner. So the total size of the banner will be big, but the initial load is small.
Next to the loading issue, there is another issue: UI.
User Interface (UI)
In the early days, we had a full banner (468×60) which was one of the biggest banners on your site. We all know them, and you’ll hardly come across one in the wild anymore.
One of the most popular banners nowadays are rectangles (300×250). But there is a new one coming, this one is nearly side wide and pushes your site down. In some cases, your site ends up below the fold.
Another issue which is becoming a bigger problem, is the problems with z-indexing. Modern website do not use pop ups anymore, they now use an element which floats over the content. This is a growing problem as banner designers do not know which z-indexes are used for what on which site. Most of the time a site does not use extensive layering, but now and then, they are, and it will only become more and more.
So what are advertising agencies going to do to fix those issues? At this moment the only thing you can do is file a complaint and the banner will be removed / fixed.
Future
What is the future of banners? Well I said before, they are getting bigger. Sanoma recently had a banner which was covering an entire site.
Finland is one of the countries where banners / advertisements are everywhere! Sites tend to get bigger and more intrusive banners.
When will this end?
Something with a foot and shooting in it?
Because people tend to get blind for banners, bigger banners where made. People also got blind for those, so even bigger banners are designed now, which are also very intrusive. The last part will get on the nerves of a lot of people. So a people start to program banner blockers because they are annoyed by those banners. The next step is that a lot of people will install a banner blocker.
The result?
(1) Advertising agencies will try to work around the banner blockers. -> (2) Banner blockers will get better. -> (3) (4)More people will install banner blockers. -> Banners will be more intrusive -> (5) Banner blockers will get better -> go to (1)
The result? Revenue loss!
.
Strange enough this post also reminds me, I should make a design for my site : /.
I block Ads, you say you dont because it pays the siteowner. Fair enouh, do you watch commercials on TV too? They pay the programs you watch! I tend to change channel or do other stuff during commercials and if i had the technology to ‘block’ those, i’d do it in an instant.
For me, reasons to use adblockers are:
1. Annoying banners: flashing, moving, scrolling, making all kinds of sounds, some even steal inputfocus…
2. Page loadtimes: it’s not only dblclk.net on the web; banners and ads do impair my browsing experience: Waiting for yetanotheradserver.lamecompany.tld… and the page does not render..
For me, but that might be my autism, companies that need fullsize crazy banners do not deserve my patronage. Thing is, now i dont see the ads, so i dont know which stores to avoid ;))
Oh, being a nerd adds to the ‘i will not be told what to buy’-thing. Nerds are usually more aware of these marketing tricks. Anyways, i’m off. Nivea told me i want an eye roller with Q10plus riboflavons.
@Fluor, as with banners, with TV you have the possibility to ignore the banners. Although they are there. I do ignore banners, but I do not block them from my screen. The same counts for commercials on TV, I do not block them (how?) If I do not want to see them, I just go somewhere else, as with a website. Often I will do something else when the commercials start. Getting something to drink, get the drink out ;-) or what ever.
1. I can understand you use ad blockers. Advertising agencies are making the banners too intrusive, as I wrote in the “Something with a foot and shooting in it?” part.
2. Most of the time indeed. A lot of banners are going trough several domains. Until they serve. That is quite annoying although the major banner agencies also have issues with speed from time to time.
so I agree partially ;-)
Thanks for referencing my lazy load article! If you can get just one banner maker to use that technique you’ve made great progress. Unfortunately – as you already have noticed – they don’t even know what “slow” means… Keep pushing!
@Emil, Thanks for writing it! :-)
I still have contact with some banner agencies. But indeed, the do not get the point.
They actually say “We have fast servers, our banners are most of the time even before the content of the site is”.
Oh, being a nerd adds to the ‘i will not be told what to buy’-thing. Nerds are usually more aware of these marketing tricks. Anyways, i’m off. Nivea told me i want an eye roller with Q10plus riboflavons.