Like an answered prayer, Google has decided to do away with interstitial ads on mobile devices.
What are Interstitial Ads?
The name given to these interstitial ads isn’t exactly descriptive if you don’t already know what they’re referring to. These are the ads that occupy the space between your mobile browser and the website you’re trying to view. A popular one, for instance, appears while trying to visit almost any forum. A user will likely be shown an ad saying something along the lines of, “Hey, you can view this forum via Tapatalk. Click here to download.”
Google Breaks Down the Statistics
In a new study done by Google, the company found out that these ads were just shy of being completely useless. In fact, so many people ignored these ads that Google decided to ditch the ad format completely.
Google used Google+ as the front end page for the study. When users would visit the site, they would be welcomed by an interstitial ad. From the study, only 9 percent of the users actually clicked on the ad, though that doesn’t mean they downloaded the app. That’s a pretty small number, but a staggering 69 percent of the users high-tailed it off the page entirely. A 9 percent click-through rate (CTR) actually isn’t that bad, but having so many users simply abandon the site altogether is pretty alarming.
When Google removed the interstitial ad they noticed that website activity had increased almost 17 percent while app downloads remained relatively stagnant.
“Based on these results, we decided to permanently retire the interstitial,” said Google+ software engineer David Morell.
Making Changes for the Better
A difficult part of Google’s job is maintaining harmony between the audience and the advertisers. Ads aren’t bad, but users want to see ads relevant to their interest and that they consider valuable, whereas advertisers want a good return on investment (ROI). After seeing the numbers, it was clear to Google that neither party was benefitting from the ad format.
Google will be publishing its findings in hopes that others will take a second look at using interstitials on their platforms.
