The annoyance of ad swamping!

Sitting on the loo this morning, I started scrolling through my Google feed. There were some real gems. When I started to click through to read each article most were overrun with ads. 
It’s difficult enough to read a lengthy article on my phone without trying to hop around the virtual landscape trying to piece together an elaborate puzzle in order to string paragraphs together.

You know what I am talking about. Whether you are a fan of Android or Apple, when trying to read articles, you are swamped with ads. Pops-ups, clickbait, buttons that look like they take you to the next page but land you on an underwear site! Perhaps there are some statistics somewhere that say, ‘ if you irritate your audience, you are more likely to sell them’!

It’s so annoying! Once I hit the wrong hotspot or have to search for the next paragraph, dodging car ad pop-ups and ads that obscure my view of what I am after, I just give up. Not only do I give up, but I am now frustrated and will probably not follow articles by that company or ever BUY from the company that featured in the ad.

So whats the psychology behind it?

The term "ad swamping" refers to the overwhelming presence of advertisements in various forms, such as online banners, pop-ups, sponsored content, and commercials. Ad swamping can have several psychological effects on individuals. Here are a few key factors that contribute to the psychology behind ad swamping:

    •    Attention and Cognitive Load: Ad swamping bombards individuals with an excessive amount of information, which can overwhelm their attentional capacity. Our attention is limited, and when faced with a constant influx of ads, it can lead to cognitive overload. When our attention is divided among multiple ads, it becomes harder to process and retain information effectively.
 
    •    Habituation and Desensitization: With the increasing presence of ads, individuals can become habituated and desensitized to their effects. Habituation occurs when people become accustomed to a stimulus, causing reduced responsiveness over time. As a result, the impact of ads may diminish as individuals become desensitized to their messages.

    •    Inattentional Blindness: Ad swamping can contribute to a phenomenon called inattentional blindness, where individuals fail to notice unexpected stimuli because they are focusing on something else. When ads are everywhere, people may unconsciously filter them out, leading to a reduced ability to perceive and process their content.
   
    •    Psychological Priming: Ads are designed to prime individuals by activating certain thoughts, emotions, or associations. Frequent exposure to ads can prime specific desires, needs, or fears, influencing individuals' thoughts and behaviors. Advertisers strategically use repetition and persuasive techniques to create a primed state in consumers, increasing the likelihood of a desired response.
  
    •    Overchoice and Decision Fatigue: Ad swamping can contribute to decision fatigue, a state in which individuals become mentally exhausted from making numerous decisions. With an overwhelming number of ads, people may experience decision paralysis and find it difficult to make choices. This can lead to a decrease in satisfaction with their decisions or avoidance of making decisions altogether.
  
    •    Persuasive Techniques: Advertisements often employ various persuasive techniques, such as emotional appeals, social proof, scarcity, and authority figures, to influence consumer behavior. Ad swamping increases the chances of exposure to these persuasive techniques, potentially impacting individuals' attitudes, beliefs, and purchasing decisions.

So surely, presenting information to someone about a product or service they are actually interested in is a better approach! Advertising needn't be a huge pain in the @r$e!!!
SEO and contextual-based approaches mean that you provide information to a user based on their search in a non-irritating manner.

Contextual advertising uses various factors to determine which content is most relevant to users when placing an ad. It targets potential customers by relying on context such as the content of a webpage, location or weather, SEO (search Engine Optimization) gives the audience what they are looking for straight away when they carry out their search, so its essential that your business is set up in the correct way to make sure your reader get to your page without the annoyance of any pop-ups, resulting in abandoning the search entirely, possibly resulting in no business for you! No-one wants that!

These different approaches blend into the surrounding content and provides a seamless experience for users. This can help retain users while also allowing brands to communicate their message effectively.

At Directing Design, inc. we focus on engaging your potential customers by adopting non-irritating techniques to create better leads for your sales team. 
Get in touch with Michael today to find out more about how we can help you with this.