4 Tips to Help You Turn Annoying Pop-Up Ads Into Useful Ones – What to Know

If there is one thing everyone agrees on, it is that we all hate pop-ups. This is something that every website owner should know by now. It is annoying, distracting, getting in the way, mostly irrelevant, and sometimes even outright rude. It sounds like pop-ups should cease to exist, right?

Quite the contrary. The only reason pop-ups have gained such a terrible reputation is that they were misused. That said, pop-ups are useful in sending a message to your audience, advertising a product, and so much more, including converting potential buyers into paying customers.

Do you have annoying pop-up ads on your website? Here are four tips to help you turn them into useful and effective pop-up ads:

1. Get the Timing Right

Often, the timing of pop-ups is what ticks off even the most patient of people. Imagine trying to watch a video, and right before you click it, an ad pops up, and you click on it. That’s just infuriating.

Badly timed ads do nothing in terms of helping your website convert visitors to customers, and it might even annoy them enough to make them want to leave immediately. Because of this, don’t go flashing ads the moment someone lands on your website. 

An excellent way to use pop-up ads is to make one pop when they click the exit button. This is pretty much a no-lose situation, as you’re offering something to them on their way out.

2. Add Something Funny

Humour works every time, whether it is done on a billboard, a banner, or a pop-up. After all, how can you be so mad at something so funny? Just be sure not to go overboard with it when you incorporate it into your web design. A little humour is good, but too much of it will make you look unprofessional.

3. Display a Good Offer

Imagine entering a website looking for high-quality mechanical pencils to purchase, only to receive pop-ups that showcase paintbrushes. What does it do to you? Well, there are two possibilities: you either spark a new interest, or you become annoyed. Unfortunately, the latter happens most of the time.

Whatever you display on your pop-up ads, it needs to be something that they’re interested in. Shoving into their faces a button to subscribe to your newsletter without anything in it for them is just a one-way trip to failure. That said, couple your pop-up ads with something useful for the visitor. For example, offer the paintbrushes along with a coupon code for a 20 per cent discount that can be used for any other product in the store. Now, that is an attention-grabbing pop-up ad!

4. Make Sure It Is Relevant

While the pop-up content will generally be related to what you have to offer, even the design of the ad should be like your site. You don’t want to send your customers into a panic, thinking they left your site just because your pop-up looks different from your website.

To ensure that your pop-ups match your website, utilise the same theme. Use similar fonts and colours, and make sure that it doesn’t block the entire page. 

It helps to look at the ads by yourself. If the ad seems out of place to you, it’ll look off to your customers.

Bottom Line 

Pop-up ads can prove to be an effective method to convert visitors to customers when you use them correctly. If you have pop-ups that do nothing else but annoy your customers and get in their way, fix them up immediately to give them a better user experience. If you can’t bother, at least get rid of them. Either way, you’re better off avoiding terrible pop-ups ruining not only your website but the business as well. You can also hire a UX agency to ensure that your site is giving your visitors the best experience possible.

If you’re looking for website design agency in Leeds to help you make good use of pop-up ads on your website, get in touch with us today! We’re happy to help.