Pop-ups advertisements are not new to the internet; almost every website these days has some sort of pop-up that includes a call to action. Whether it is to sign up for a new blog or a newsletter, pop-up advertisement is everywhere.
Before you go ahead and add a pop-up ad to your own site, you would want to consider the pros and cons associated with them.
Pros
- Price – they are pretty cheap. If you are using WordPress, then there are several plugins that offer these as services. Some of them have limitations while some come for free. Some might have a price attached to them but give more features.
- Visibility – they can be at the front, bottom or the centre; wherever you feel they would be more visible.
- Conversion – the main reason sites use pop-ups is because they help in converting a lot of visitors into subscribers. With the help of a pop-up the subscriptions on your site can increase by about 35%.
Cons
- Annoying- This is perhaps the biggest drawback that comes with using pop-ups. People would either love or hate them.
- Pop-up blockers – the news that Google has begun to crack down on pop-up advertisements has been going around for quite some time. So you might have to rethink your strategy once they are installed.
- Spam – putting a lot of pop-ups on your website would result in people leaving your website without looking for the content they came for in the first place. Multiple pop-ups are outright annoying.
Now that you have gone through the pros and cons of having pop-ups and if you believe that this is something that you want for your website then go through some tips of using pop-ups efficiently.
- Ensure that the visitor has a way to exit the pop-up. It is extremely annoying to be hit with a pop-up which you cannot exit. In nearly every case the visitor will exit the website instead of trying to get out of the pop-up
- Make sure that they work. If you are using a plugin, then update them regularly. If you are asking the users to give you their email for some newsletter, make sure that you have tested the process all the way till the end to understand what they are experiencing.
- Try to keep it simple. If a person has to put in a lot of information in the form, then they are less likely to fill it. Unless it is absolutely required ask only for their email addresses and nothing else.
- Consider the placement of the pop-up. When and where will your pop-up appear? This depends largely on your goal. If you are looking for the visitor to subscribe to the blog, then you should consider triggering it to the end of your blog post. Now that they have seen the sample of your writing they would be more inclined to subscribe to your blog. Had you put it in the beginning the visitor would have ignored it entirely. If they are coming to download a PDF, then it would be better to give a pop-up at the landing page itself.
