IBD: Web display ads have “issues”

Web advertising was supposed to be “an unstoppable force,” writes Norm Alster of Investor’s Business Daily. But now, “a long roster of display ad players have recently announced disappointing sales results. Among the victims: Yahoo, ValueClick, Real Networks, WebMD, eHealth and Bankrate.com. AOL suffered a staggering 14% drop in its second-quarter display ad business.”

Web display advertising has plummeted to just 8% of all ad sales for the first five months of this year, IBD says — nothing like the double-digit growth of years past. Much of that is because of a bad economy, of course –everything’s down. But some see “growing doubts” about how well the ads work. IBD says there are several big issues: concern over spyware being transmitted by these ads, click fraud, privacy concerns, inflated traffic counts, pop-under and -over ads and other annoying ads.

In an article for tomorrow’s paper, “As Growth Cools Off In Web Display Ads, New Questions Nag,” Alster writes:

WWAV Rapp Collins, the British direct marketing firm, recently found further evidence that many online ads backfire. Three in four Web users in a July survey reported leaving a Web site because of annoying ads.

Younger surfers, often seen as the Web’s most loyal enthusiasts, were even more impatient. Seventy percent of 25- to 34-year-olds stopped visiting a Web site altogether because of annoying ads. Noisy ads, pop-ups and ads that were hard to close were among the biggest turnoffs.

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Tags: Advertising, ibd, Newspapers, web

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