Anyone who travels on the Internet will inevitably be confronted with more or less annoying marketing measures and techniques. In this article we have collected the most annoying marketing measures and techniques from the user's perspective so that you can use them wisely and don't frighten your users away. Because once distributed, the users do not come again so fast!
1. Full-surface tracking/cookie banner
Since various legal changes (e.g. GDPR) they can be found on almost every website: Tracking or cookie banners that want your consent. These are available in different variations. A good implementation of a cookie banner does not interfere with the user experience and gives users the opportunity to consciously reject or accept certain cookies (e.g. via checkbox).
It becomes particularly annoying, however, if the entire page is blocked and you don't even have a choice. Usually there is only one button with "Okay" to choose from. Instead of clicking on it, many users close the whole website directly! You should avoid that.
You should give users the opportunity to accept or decline certain cookies. That creates trust!
Tip: Especially with a large number of marketing or personalization cookies, it should be possible to easily select and agree to the various cookies. So, the user is "master of his data" and gets a positive picture of your company right away. In addition, this cookie banner should never block the entire screen, as this will create a negative user experience.
2. Penetrant retargeting
Retargeting is theterm used to describe an online marketing measure that displays or suggests an already viewed product, shop or website to a user in various places (e.g. in banner advertising). The aim of this advertisement is to trigger a purchase or a conversion.
Thereby, it can happen that you once watched a television or bought a perfume for your girlfriend, and for months exactly these products are displayed on all possible websites or in apps. This is not only annoying, but also casts a rather bad light on the advertiser. Because he appreciates his users so little that he follows them across different websites with his "great" product offers. According to an Accenture survey,35% of users even find it strange when they receive advertising for a product on social media that they have previously viewed on another website. That should make you think!
Retargeting can feel like a burning arrow if it is too penetrating. Here you should ask yourself from the user's point of view: What would be too much for me?
One variation of this marketing measure is particularly creepy: If the online shop has purchased external data from third parties and already knows everything about you as soon as you enter its website. Not only is this method unethical, it also usually violates European data protection laws.
Tip: Retargeting is not always bad. But it gets very annoying when it's badly done. The number of ads per user can be limited to a tolerable minimum by so-called frequency capping. This saves money for the advertiser and some nerves for the users.
3. Autoplay videos (outside the field of view)
A few years ago, it was especially popular among bloggers to generate advertising revenue via autoplay videos in the footer. Mostly these annoying marketing measures were combined with a shrill sound or very loud music. This should attract the attention of the user. What added value this has for advertisers is something everyone can consider for themselves. In the meantime, this form of advertising has been categorized by the Coalition for Better Ads as not recommendable.
This annoying form of advertising is now less widespread, but it still exists in a modified form today. Whether in the sidebar, within an article or "pinned" at the edge of the screen while scrolling: the videos can usually neither be skipped nor otherwise closed. Numbers for Autoplay videos: 61% of ads in Chrome start automatically. A third of websites start 75% of their videos automatically, although this type of advertising is one of the least accepted forms of advertising!
This form of advertising also exists in social networks such as Facebook or LinkedIn. However, it is better implemented here. By default, the sound is deactivated and especially with LinkedIn the videos are often subtitled. Therefore, you can watch an interview during work without having to use headphones. All in all, the format Autoplay Video (Ads) in social media probably serves best to increase the (gross) reach of the platform and its users such as brands, dealers or influencers. But this is usually more appearance than being and in the long run the platforms only benefit themselves.
Tip: If you use autoplay videos on your website, follow the best practices of social networks! Because most likely your users have already learned how to handle this kind of videos there.
4.Irrelevant Content Recommendations
Various Content Recommendation Engines display supposedly relevant content both on websites and at the end of articles. For most media companies, these are traditionally a mixture of advertising and content. Online media without a paid subscription model in particular are dependent on refinancing their content via advertising.
Unfortunately, this often displays extremely promotional content from third-party providers with titles such as "You'll never believe what a professional fully automatic coffee machine really costs" or "The world's smallest hearing aid". A 25-year-old tea drinker who is confronted with these slogans is certainly annoyed and closes the tab because of irrelevance. This is double annoying: Advertisers waste their advertising budgets so inefficiently and the media brands quickly destroy the image they have built up over the years.
Tip: Through Situationalization and the use of real-time personas, content recommendations on media or news websites can be optimized. This increases the relevance of the recommendations and the length of stay as well as the number of page/ad impressions can be significantly increased.
5. Influencer-"Marketing"
One of the most hyped, latest marketing measures are campaigns with influencers in social networks. Influencers have built up a particularly high reach of their own for a topic or in an industry. But where does intelligent marketing end and where does clumsy product placement begin? Do users really believe that the fictitious influencer "Mary Joggings" constantly holds products of a certain brand prominently in the camera just because they are particularly good? I don't think so.
Although there are legal requirements as to how such postings should be marked, all in all there is still some wild west atmosphere in the area of influencer marketing in 2019. There is "false advertising" posted, i.e. influencers have not entered into a paid partnership with a company and want to appear more relevant to future advertisers. There are even virtual influencers that are fully animated and have millions of followers.
One could get the impression in social networks that there are now more influencers than users. Here quality counts instead of quantity.
Social networks should not only be full of product photos of supposed stars or animated avatars. Because that displaces really relevant and inspiring postings from the news feeds of this world. By cooperating with the wrong influencers or by poorly implemented advertising postings, brands and companies can even scare away their customers.
Tip: Influencer marketing should be authentic. It is therefore advisable to work with selected influencers that match the product and to implement the marketing measures natively, i.e. similarly to organic postings.
6. Exit Intent Layer without Cookies
Some of you may be wondering: What exactly does that mean? These are layers that lay over a web page when you move the mouse in the direction of "Close Tab". Before leaving, the user is shown a voucher, a special offer or a newsletter field to bind him. That's a good idea for now. But if this window, although you have closed it, appears again and again, it is annoying.
Tip: Set a cookie that detects whether the window has been closed before and is therefore uninteresting. The same should be done if users have already left their e-mail or other data. Because also these users are surely annoyed, if one recommends the newsletter to them again and again, although they receive and read this regularly.
7.TOP offers that are not in stock...
You browse through a shop, see an advertisement or receive a newsletter with a top offer. Click on the product and the desired size is no longer available or the offer is no longer in stock. The result: frustration! But what can shop operators do in this case?
This frustration can be avoided in advance by an intelligent assortment control. After all, it is fundamentally positive when offers are sold out. However, they should then no longer be displayed to the user.
Tip: If only one desired size is no longer available, ODOSCOPE's situational product recommendations can be an ideal solution. The system immediately recognizes which articles are no longer available and gives the user alternative, individually relevant product suggestions within milliseconds. Ideally, the customer still finds what he is looking for and does not leave the online shop with an empty shopping cart. With ODOSCOPE you can also define your own target functions and adapt them to your processes - no matter whether you want to reduce returns, increase margins, sell off stocks or boost your own brands.
