Pop-Ups Frustrate More Consumers Than Any Other Online Annoyance

June 30, 2020

This article is included in these additional categories:

Advertising Trends | Creative & Formats | Customer Experience | Customer-Centric | Digital | Email | Mobile Phone

Adobe Most Frustrating Aspects Online Content Jun2020All brands want to create digital experiences that are functional and enjoyable for the consumer. However, this isn’t always fully achieved. In a recent study [slideshare] by Adobe, consumers shared the experiences that frustrate them most when engaging with digital content.

Below are the three most common pains chosen by the group.

Pop-Ups Annoy the Largest Share

The survey of more than 1,000 adult consumers asked “When engaging with a brand’s content, what experiences frustrate you the most?” Topping the list, cited by 41% of respondents, were pop-up ads, alerts or cookies.

Dislike for this style of interruption shows up again and again in other research — in a similar study from AYTM in 2017, pop-up ads were found to be the most intrusive or unacceptable online ad format as cited by almost 7 in 10 consumers. And, in an earlier YouGov report, some 73% of respondents claimed to dislike online pop-ups, making them the least liked ad type.

That said, marketers may have to choose between consumer experience and hitting conversion targets. Despite the largely negative opinion towards pop-ups, research by Sumo found that 1 in 50 people still enter their email address when prompted by this type of ad, with list builders achieving the most successful conversion rate (2.9%).

Spam Emails Come a Close Second

Next on the list of frustrating experiences are spam emails, cited by 37% of respondents. Fortunately for consumers, every year spammers find it more difficult to get their emails into inboxes, thanks to efforts made by email providers. For marketers, deliverability rate is on the rise; per the latest Validity (formerly Return Path) figures, some 91% of emails from senders with the best reputation scores reach inboxes. However, this is potentially lowering recipients’ tolerance for spam, with complaint rates more than doubling year-over-year in 2018.

1 in 4 Complain About Page Speed

Coming in third, a frustration for one-quarter of respondents, is slow page load. Indeed, research suggests marketers aren’t making page speed enough of a priority, with just 3% of respondents to a 2019 Unbounce survey labeling this their top priority for campaign performance.

Previous research from Google has shown that the probability of a mobile site visitor bouncing from a page more than doubles when the page load time goes from 1 second to 10 seconds.

Meanwhile, before the outbreak of COVID-19, smartphones already accounted for two-thirds of US digital media time, and since the crisis many consumers have increased their screen time. In light of these changes, marketers may want to take note of the various website experience factors that respondents labeled as frustrating, including failure to preserve scrolling position (18%), automatic sound (13%) and cluttered design (12%).

Read more from consumers about digital experiences in the full report here.

About the Data: Results are based on a survey of 1,000 adults (18+) in the US (800) and UK (200).

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