Pop-Under Advertising has increased in popularity over the last several years. Business people across the internet are seeing tremendous results and increases in targeted web site traffic as a result of pop-under campaigns.

So, what makes pop-under advertising such a phenomenal advertising medium? This article takes a look at the top reasons for pop-under advertising’s unprecedented success in the online marketing world.

• Why are Pop up Ads Effective?
• 5 Reasons why Pop-under Ads are so Effective
• Why are Pop up Ads Annoying?
• What is the Main Reason for Advertising?
• How do I Stop Pop-under Internet Ads?
• Why do so many Ads Pop up on my Phone?
• Why do I still get pop ups when I have them Blocked?
• Are Pop ups Dangerous?

Why are Pop up Ads Effective?

The average pop-up—of almost 2 billion tested by Sumo—converted at 3.09%, and the best around 9.28%. With those kinds of numbers, even with 100 visitors a day, using a newsletter subscription pop-up would give you between 92 and 274 subscribers every month.

Read Also: How do Online Ads Make Money?

Aweber found that moving from a sidebar opt-in form to a pop-up increased subscription by 1,375%.

But why? Why do these things work when so many people complain about them?

There are a few key reasons:

1. Pop-ups show to everyone. Banner blindness occurs just as frequently on your website as it does in display advertising. Pop-ups (because they have to be seen to be closed) have a 100% view rate. A 3% conversion rate may not sound that impressive, but 3% of every website visitor becomes a significant number over time.
2. Pop-ups deliver a message when site visitors are engaged. Well-implemented pop-ups deliver a prompt exactly when your site visitors are most likely to click through (not including exit intent pop-ups, of course, which are a different thing entirely).
3. Pop-ups offer value. No, seriously. Well-used, relevant pop-ups provide value to your readers and site visitors. We’ll show you some examples below.
4. Pop-ups can’t be ignored. Unlike your sidebar blog subscription prompt or the one in your website footer, a pop-up is (by definition) seen. Visitors can’t help but read your message or value proposition when it pops up in their face. Even if they close it, the message has still been communicated.

5 Reasons why Pop-under Ads are so Effective

1. Reach a Targeted Audience

When pop-under ads are placed correctly, they are displayed across publisher sites that are relevant to the product or service advertised. For example, if your website deals in automobile parts and accessories, your pop-under campaign can be run across a network of automobile dealer web sites. This way, your audience has a greater chance in being interested in what it is that your offer.

2. Guaranteed Visitors

All pop-under campaigns guarantee that a certain number of visitors are directed to your web site. Many pop-under advertising companies back the traffic they commit to with money back guarantees.

3. Cost Effective

When compared to other marketing methods, pop-under advertising tends to be highly affordable. For those website owners looking to direct cost effective traffic to their sites, pop-under advertising gives them that competitive edge.

4. Immediate

Pop-under advertising provides its user with an instant source of traffic. Most popunder campaigns can be setup and begin generating visitors to client web sites within 24 hours. Campaigns can be setup accordingly to route anywhere between hundreds to thousands of targeted visitors to a web site each day.

5. Flexible

Popunder campaigns give users the ability to quickly substitute ads or web site URLs in the middle of a campaign as it runs. Advertisers can run one ad, learn what effect it has on their intended audience, and then adjust or change the ad midstream to re-evaluate its effect.

If the marketer is not getting a good response from a pop-under ad, a valuable lesson can be learned and the campaign be adjusted. The advertiser then has the opportunity to modify the popunder with an alternate ad or web page to fine tune the campaign and generate more traffic.

The positive aspects of popunder advertising cannot be disputed. Through precisely targeted pop-under campaigns, advertisers can benefit from instant increases in web site traffic at some of the most affordable prices on the internet.

Why are Pop up Ads Annoying?

Now, some companies have tried to rebrand these sorts of pop-up ads using fancy titles like “exit overlays,” but at the end of the day, a pop-up ad is still a pop-up ad. It pops up on the user’s screen, hijacks their experience and bugs the heck out of people.

But here’s the thing. There’s a reason why pop-up ads are still so commonly used. They work. Quite well, in fact. The problem with pop-up ads isn’t necessarily that the ads themselves are bad, it’s that most marketers don’t know how to use them effectively.

The good news is, with the right strategy, pop-up ads can actually be a very effective way to convince people to sign up for your email list, become a lead or buy your products. You simply have to figure out how to provide value…and minimize frustration.

So, we’re going to take a look at why pop-up ads can be so effective, why most people dislike them, and how to use pop-up ads in a way that works – for you and your site traffic. Let’s dive in!

The power of the pop-up

Why do people hate pop-ups? Because they interrupt the user experience. You’re in the middle of checking out a website or searching for something specific and then, suddenly, a giant pop-up ad appears, forcing you to look at it, pay attention to it and deal with it.

Which, incidentally, is why pop-up ads work so well.

One of the biggest problems with online advertising is figuring out how to get people to pay attention to your ads. Banner blindness is a very real thing, and if your ad doesn’t interrupt the user experience in some way, people often won’t even notice your ads.

Pop-up ads, however, force people to pay attention to them in the same way that YouTube ads and TV commercials do. With a pop-up ad, you don’t have to wonder whether or not people will see your ad – they’ll definitely see it, even if their only interaction with your ad is trying to get rid of it.

The real problem with pop-up ads, though, is that they’ve been abused by marketers for years. Even without the scams, virus downloads and other illegitimate uses of pop-up ads, marketers have been so aggressive with pop-ups over the years that many people have a knee-jerk negative reaction as soon as they see one.

Not many ads can claim to have a 73% disapproval rating. That’s an even worse disapproval rating than any U.S. president has ever had. Even Google penalizes advertisers for using them. So why do businesses keep using them?

Well, because they work.

While people say they hate pop-up ads, their actions tell a very different story. With my own business, Disruptive Advertising, our on-site pop-up ads convert as much as 7% of the people who see them.

Some companies have used them to increase email signups by almost 14x or leads by 162%. In fact, after assessing 2 billion pop-up ads, Sumo reported that the average pop-up ad converted over 3% of viewers.

As much as people seem to despise pop-up ads, marketers keep using them because their users keep responding to them. However, there is a danger to using pop-up ads with the wrong strategy.

While people do seem to respond to pop-up ads, but if you don’t use them properly, you can easily frustrate your site traffic…and Google. Lousy pop-up experiences are bad for everyone, but with the right approach, they can be great for your business.

Creating pop-up ads that users actually like

If you want to get good results from your pop-up ads, they have to provide value. Remember, three-quarters of your site traffic will instantly be annoyed by the appearance of a pop-up ad, so you’re starting in a pretty bad place. To recover, you need to offer enough value that people will be willing to forgive your advertising faux pas.

Think about it like this. On a Saturday evening when you’re trying to relax and catch your breath from the day’s chores, an unexpected knock at the door can feel like a real inconvenience.

If it’s an aggressive salesperson at the door, how open are you going to be to their pitch? Odds are, you’ll be looking for the quickest out you can find. A friendly neighbor carrying a plate full of cookies, on the other hand, will probably get a much warmer reception.

In both cases, your evening has been interrupted, but a free plate of homemade cookies is a far more welcome interruption than a sales pitch.

Similarly, if you want people to feel positive about your pop-up ads, you have to make the interruption a positive one by offering something valuable. People don’t mind interruptions when they get something they want in exchange.

Now, how do you do that with your pop-up ads? Here are a few ideas:

Discounts

Most visitors to your website are in information-gathering mode. In effect, they’re like window-shoppers checking out the contents of your site – interested, but not exactly ready to buy unless something jumps out at them.

Lucky for you, nothing quite jumps out on a website like a pop-up ad – particularly when that pop-up ad contains a discount.

In many ways, this sort of pop-up is the digital equivalent of hiring a person to hand out coupons at the entrance to a brick-and-mortar store. It grabs people’s attention and makes them more likely to buy. And, as an added benefit, you can snag their email address in exchange for the discount.

The beauty of this sort of offer is that it doesn’t even matter whether or not they buy today. Sure, a discount code increases the likelihood that they’ll buy today, but even if they don’t, they’ll be more likely to come back – especially if you drop them into an email drip campaign that helps them realize just how awesome your business is.

Exclusive access

While there are ways for non-e-commerce businesses to offer discounts in a pop-up ad, if you aren’t running an e-commerce business, you may need to find other types of value to offer in your pop-ups.

For businesses with a solid content marketing strategy, you may want to use your pop-up ads to advertise exclusive content. This works particularly well if they’re already checking out your content. After all, if your free content was good, your exclusive content must be even better.

Many businesses use white papers, ebooks or other types of content upgrades to encourage people to hand over their email address. This sort of tactic is very handy when you have a longer sales cycle and want to build brand familiarity before you start pushing for a sale.

And the best part? By locking your best content away, you create a sense of scarcity that increases the perceived value of your content. Maybe your gated content really is way better than the content users can find on your blog, but even if it isn’t, it doesn’t matter. Because it isn’t freely available, people will believe that it’s more desirable.

Time-limited offers

Along the same lines, you can also advertise limited-time deals with pop-up ads. With this tactic, the value of the pop-up is the heads-up. After all, no one wants to miss out on a deal.

However, for this strategy to work, your time-limited offer needs to make sense. If it feels arbitrary or manipulative, people will doubt the validity of the offer and, by extension, the trustworthiness of your business. That’s the exact opposite of what you want.

But, if you’re running an event and ticket prices will go up in a couple of weeks, or you’ve got a Black Friday deal that ends on Cyber Monday or any other similar sort of time-limited offer, letting people know is something of a public service announcement. People will appreciate the heads up and feel motivated to act sooner.

Love them or hate them, pop-up ads work and they’re here to stay. While most people despise pop-up ads, with the right strategy, you can create valuable pop-ups that your site traffic will actually appreciate.

Ultimately, that’s the key to all advertising. People want to feel like they’re getting value from the ads they see. When they’re irrelevant and distracting, people get frustrated. But when they’re relevant and valuable, people get excited.

The problem with pop-up ads has never been the format, it’s been the fact that the format has been abused for years. People are used to pop-up ads being pushy and obnoxious, but they don’t have to be.

With the right approach, you can create pop-up ads that visitors to your website love and that help you milk even more conversions from your site traffic. And that, my friends, is a win for any business.

What is the Main Reason for Advertising?

Advertising is any paid form of communication from an identified sponsor or source that draws attention to ideas, goods, services or the sponsor itself.

Most advertising is directed toward groups rather than individuals, and advertising is usually delivered through media such as television, radio, newspapers and, increasingly, the Internet. Ads are often measured in impressions (the number of times a consumer is exposed to an advertisement).

Advertising is a very old form of promotion with roots that go back even to ancient times. In recent decades, the practices of advertising have changed enormously as new technology and media have allowed consumers to bypass traditional advertising venues.

From the invention of the remote control, which allows people to ignore advertising on TV without leaving the couch, to recording devices that let people watch TV programs but skip the ads, conventional advertising is on the wane. Across the board, television viewership has fragmented, and ratings have fallen.

Print media are also in decline, with fewer people subscribing to newspapers and other print media and more people favoring digital sources for news and entertainment. Newspaper advertising revenue has declined steadily since 2000. 

Advertising revenue in television is also soft, and it is split across a growing number of broadcast and cable networks. Clearly companies need to move beyond traditional advertising channels to reach consumers. Digital media outlets have happily stepped in to fill this gap. 

Despite this changing landscape, for many companies advertising remains at the forefront of how they deliver the proper message to customers and prospective customers.

The Purpose of Advertising

Advertising has three primary objectives: to inform, to persuade, and to remind.

• Informative Advertising creates awareness of brands, products, services, and ideas. It announces new products and programs and can educate people about the attributes and benefits of new or established products.
• Persuasive Advertising tries to convince customers that a company’s services or products are the best, and it works to alter perceptions and enhance the image of a company or product. Its goal is to influence consumers to take action and switch brands, try a new product, or remain loyal to a current brand.
• Reminder Advertising reminds people about the need for a product or service, or the features and benefits it will provide when they purchase promptly.

When people think of advertising, often product-focused advertisements are top of mind—i.e., ads that promote an organization’s goods or services. Institutional advertising goes beyond products to promote organizations, issues, places, events, and political figures. 

Public service announcements (PSAs) are a category of institutional advertising focused on social-welfare issues such as drunk driving, drug use, and practicing a healthy lifestyle. Usually PSAs are sponsored by nonprofit organizations and government agencies with a vested interest in the causes they promote.

How do I Stop Pop-under Internet Ads?

Pop-under advertisements that are initiated by websites that you visit can be blocked from your web browser. Changing the settings in your web browser to block pop-under ads will also prevent pop-up ads from displaying.

Pop-unders can only be blocked using your web browser if they are opened by web sites that you visit. Pop-under advertisements that pop as a result of adware installed on your computer must be removed from the system using an adware or spyware removal program.

Google Chrome

Step 1

Open the Google Chrome browser from your Windows desktop. Click the blue wrench-shaped icon in the upper right-hand corner of the browser.

Step 2

Choose “Options” from the menu that appears underneath the wrench icon. Click the “Under the Hood” label in the Google Chrome Options window.

Step 3

Click “Content settings…” underneath the “Privacy” heading. Click the “Pop-ups” tab.

Left click the bubble next to the text that reads, “Do not allow any site to show pop-ups.” Click “Close.” Pop-under and pop-up ads will now be blocked in Chrome.

Mozilla Firefox

Step 1

Launch Mozilla Firefox from your computer’s desktop or “Start” menu. Left click on the “Tools” button located on the menu bar towards the top of the Firefox window.

Step 2

Select “Options” from the drop-down menu that appears. Left click on the “Content” icon near the top of the window that opens.

Click the empty box next to “Block Popup Windows” to place a check mark in it. Click “OK” at the bottom of the “Options” window. Restart Firefox by closing the browser and opening it back up. Pop-up and pop-under ads will now be blocked automatically.

Apple Safari

Step 1

Start the Safari browser from your computer’s desktop. Click “Safari” in the left corner of the menu bar (next to the Apple icon).

Step 2

Move your cursor to highlight the “Block Pop-Up Windows” option in the menu. Click on “Block Pop-Up Windows” to place a check mark next to the text.

Restart the Safari browser. Both pop-under and pop-up ads will now be blocked by Safari.

Microsoft Internet Explorer

Step 1

Open Internet Explorer from the Windows desktop. Click on the button labeled “Tools” underneath the address bar.

Step 2

Scroll over the “Pop-up Blocker” button to highlight it in the menu that appears. Left click “Turn on Pop-up Blocker” in the small menu that displays to the right.

Click “Yes” when the prompt asking if you are sure that you would like to turn on the Internet Explorer Pop-up Blocker appears. Internet Explorer will now block pop-ups and pop-unders initiated by websites.

Opera

Step 1

Double click on the Opera icon on your desktop to open the browser. Single click on the “Tools” button located on the Opera menu bar.

Step 2

Select “Quick preferences” in the window that is opened. Choose “Block all pop-ups” from the list of available options.

Click the “OK” button to save the pop-up blocker settings. Close any Opera windows that are open on your computer. Reopen Opera and the settings blocking pop-unders and pop-ups will take effect.

Why do so many Ads Pop up on my Phone?

There are popups all over the web and ads in many free apps, but that’s to be expected. It’s the cost of using free services. But these ads are constrained to the app or website, and they only show up when you’re actively using it — they shouldn’t ever pop up when you’re using a different app or not using your phone at all.

So that’s not the type of ad we’re dealing with here. The type of popup that appears even when you’re not interacting with your phone is always caused by an adware app. Likely one that seemed to have legitimate functionality, and probably even an app you installed from Google Play. So it’s not always easy to identify.

Identifying & Removing the Adware

If it’s been happening for a while and you’ve ignored it, you can’t just uninstall the last app you installed. If it’s just now starting to happen, it’s either an app you installed recently or one that auto-updated recently.

Either way, there’s a super simple way to find out which app it is. As soon as the next ad pops up, go to your home screen and open the Play Store app before opening any other app. Open the hamburger menu, go to My Apps, then head to the Installed tab.

It’s sorted alphabetically by default, so tap the little sort button near the top-right and choose “Last Used.” Ignore your launcher since it’ll probably be first in the list (unless you suspect it might be your launcher), but tap the second app. Hit “Uninstall.” You’ve now just identified the problem and solved it in one fell swoop!

If the option to uninstall the app is not available, it’s either a preinstalled app (which wouldn’t be the adware) or an app that somehow got Device Administrator privileges. These can still be uninstalled, but it takes a little more work.

Why do I still get pop ups when I have them Blocked?

If you’re getting pop-up windows when browsing on Google Chrome it either means the pop-up blocker is not properly configured or other software is circumventing the browser’s pop-up blocker.

Pop-up windows are intended to open a new web page within a different window to leave the original page unaffected: the new window may include some special customization features.

Pop-up blocker programs are designed to stop pop-up windows that are used in a way that is disruptive to the user.

Pop-Up Blocker Disabled

You may be getting pop-ups in Chrome because the pop-up blocker program hasn’t been properly configured. Chrome features only two pop-up blocker settings: “Allow all sites to show pop-ups” and “Do not allow any site to show pop-ups (recommended).” The latter option must be selected to block pop-ups.

Chrome takes an all-or-nothing approach and does not try to guess which pop-ups are desired and which ones aren’t.

To stop pop-ups on Chrome, the pop-up blocker can be enabled by clicking the three-lines “Menu” icon, selecting “Settings,” clicking “Show advanced settings,” choosing “Content settings” under the Privacy section, clicking the radio button next to the “Do not allow” option and clicking “Done.”

You’ve Made an Exception

If you’ve added a particular page to the exceptions list in Chrome, any pop-up launched from that page will get through the pop-up blocker. Chrome uses a regular expression pattern to enable pop-ups for related pages within the same tree, which can unintentionally allow pop-ups on other pages on the same site with similar names.

You may have to make exceptions to allow pop-ups on certain websites to use specific features and access services. For example, a site may use a pop-up window for login functions. Allowing the pop-up on that page to use the login service will also allow other pop-ups, like advertisements, to appear.

Malware and Chrome Pop-ups

Malware is able to work around Chrome’s pop-up blocker and launch pop-up windows, even if pop-ups are disabled and the site is not included in the exceptions list.

It’s a sign that the computer has a malware infection if pop-ups are showing up on sites when the blocker should be stopping them.

The pop-ups will go away if the transgressing malware is removed from the system. Free anti-malware programs like Malwarebytes and Spybot can painlessly remove the majority of malware infections. Anti-virus programs can identify and remove malware infections as well.

Adware Circumvents Blockers

Similar to malware, adware can get around pop-up blockers and launch pop-up windows. Adware is different from malware in that it legitimately installs itself with the user’s permission, even though the user might not actually recognize what they’re approving.

Anti-virus and anti-malware programs may be able to remove adware. However, adware may function like any legitimate program on the computer and have a built-in uninstaller program that can be accessed on the Start Screen or through the “Programs and Features” menu in the Control Panel.

Are Pop ups Dangerous?

While unwanted pop-up windows can be annoying, they may be dangerous as well. Pop-up windows that websites trigger occur when you use your browser. Pop-ups that occur when you’re not surfing the Web may come from a malware infection on your computer. While all pop-ups aren’t dangerous, it’s important to learn to identify the source of those that seem suspicious.

Browser Pop-up Windows

A browser pop-up is simply a regular browser window that a website opens. Because a developer has the ability to control a pop-up’s size, you may see one that’s only a few inches in diameter. Many browsers are not only safe, but helpful as well.

A website may display an important signup form or an image that resides in a pop-up. Some sites that sell products might cause a pop-up to open when you try to leave the site. These types of pop-ups can occur in response to actions that you make, such as clicking a button, or automatically at intervals the site’s software sets.

Pop-up Source Identification

As Mozilla, Firefox’s maker notes, you can tell if a pop-up is coming from that browser by examining the pop-up window. If you see an address bar at the top of the window and the Firefox logo in the window’s upper-left corner, Firefox is generating the pop-up.

If you use another browser, such as Chrome, look for an address bar and the browser’s logo in that pop-up. Ensure that your browser’s pop-up blocker is on, and it will display helpful information about sites that try to open pop-ups. You can also configure pop-up blockers so that they only block pop-ups from certain sites.

Malware Pop-ups

OnGuard Online.gov urges people not to purchase a security program that you might see in an offer that a pop-up window displays. The program that you purchase may be useless or it may contain malware. You should also be careful when you download software from sources you do not trust.

When you install an application that contains spyware or more malicious programs, it may add pop-ups to your system and infect your computer with malware.

Read Also: How Does Bing Ads Make Money?

If you see pop-ups that don’t appear to come from your browser, perform a system scan using your anti-virus program. If you don’t have a program that protects your system, install one to help keep you and your information safe from threats.

Final Pop-up Tips

Modern Web developers have the ability to display windows that look like pop-ups but are nothing more than regular HTML elements called divs. If you visit a site that displays image thumbnails, a larger version of the image may appear in a box that resembles a pop-up.

The box may even have a border around it that seems to cast a shadow on the Web page below. Because these types of pop-ups are not browser windows or malware, they cannot harm your computer. They will disappear when you leave the Web page that made them appear.