google is no stranger to algorithmic change. and usually, those changes are made for the sake of the user. looking at a history of google's product announcements, usability is usually at the heart of the modification.

so when google announced its impending smackdown on mobile pop-up ads earlier this week, it came as no surprise that the major reason behind it was to enhance the user
experience.

for many businesses, the announcement carries major implications. those that rely on advertisements as a primary source of revenue, for example, will be some of the hardest hit. to help you navigate this change, we put together everything you need to know below, from what the update entails to how to prepare accordingly.

what’s new in mobile search results

back in 2014, google added a "mobile-friendly" label for search results that were optimized for such platforms -- where text is readable without zooming or horizontal scrolling, and links are spaced well enough so that there’s a reduced chance of mis-tapping.

but two years later, google has found that 85% of mobile search results are optimized that way. as a result, the search engine is doing away with that label, and introducing new mobile-specific ranking criteria.

and now, pages with mobile pop-ups -- or what google is calling “interstitials” -- probably won’t be ranking as highly when these algorithmic changes take effect on january 10, 2017.

“pages that show intrusive interstitials provide a poorer experience to users than other pages where content is immediately accessible,” google’s official announcement states. “this can be problematic on mobile devices where screens are often smaller.”

not all pop-ups are created equal, though, so there are some specifics around which types of interstitials google considers to be disruptive to the user experience. some are legally required -- like ones used by liquor companies that verify the user's age -- so they won't impact the page's rank.

according to the official statement, interstitials affected by google's crackdown include the following:

• "showing a popup that covers the main content, either immediately after the user navigates to a page from the search results, or while they are looking through the page.
• displaying a standalone interstitial that the user has to dismiss before accessing the main content.
• using a layout where the above-the-fold portion of the page appears similar to a standalone interstitial, but the original content has been inlined underneath the fold."

what does it mean for marketers?

as we mentioned before, the companies that rely on these interstitials for income will be especially impacted by this change. they're the ones who, as emma hinchliffe of mashable points out, need that ad revenue to survive. now, these businesses face a difficult choice: rank, or profit.

but losing seo traffic can "crush" these companies, says hubspot's senior product marketing manager, marcus andrews. and that makes sense -- 51% percent of digital media is consumed via mobile, compared to a lagging 42% on desktop.

andrews suggests that, if they haven't done so already, marketers solve for mobile seo first. the pain that comes with changing a revenue model is inevitable, but shorter-term -- and businesses that rely on advertiser dollars, he says, should figure out ways "to make money that don’t totally disrupt the mobile user experience."

"google is very focused on the user," andrews continues. "marketers are always looking for hacky ways to increase traffic and conversion rates, and every once in a while, google needs to make a correction to improve the user experience."

that actually creates a great opportunity for marketers to think more about the user -- both the experience, and what that person is offered. it's what hubspot's director of product development, nicholas holland, calls a "forcing function." it makes marketers seriously consider the increasing overtaking of mobile technology, and what the implications will be on their overall business operations.

basically, these developments from google are a giant wake-up call to those who "create a bad viewer experience," holland says -- especially those who might not even realize it. now, they absolute must "think through alternative revenue methods."

but what are those methods, exactly?

first -- if it isn't obvious by now -- remove any pop-ups you've been using that are interruptive in nature. (read this post to learn what makes a pop-up not interruptive.)

"as inbound marketers, we rely on driving relevant visitors to content," says hubspot's principal product marketing manager, jeffrey vocell. "interstitials, especially interruptive ones, do not provide a good experience, and in many cases actually block or limit the content that can be seen."

that's why your best option might be to create valuable content that draws the visitors that vocell is alluding to. when you do that, holland advises, you can focus on driving revenue -- or at least leads -- using calls-to-action and embedded forms. (and to learn more about converting those leads, check out our free ebook on optimizing landing pages.)

replacing intrusive interstitials with valuable content is a double-edged seo sword. not only are you giving the user what he or she is searching for -- and improving your rank accordingly -- but you're also getting rid of the invasive pop-ups that, come january, would be lowering it.

what you can do now to prepare

if you're freaking out about google's announcement, that's okay -- but please, don't be. as we mentioned, these changes actually provide a great opportunity to use inbound marketing to generally enhance your marketing presence -- on mobile, or otherwise.

here's what you can do to get ready for the rollout:

• ditch your interruptive interstitials -- unless they're required by law. those include age verification displays, as noted above, and pop-ups that let your user know you use cookies.
• if you relied on interstitials for ad revenue, figure out where that money is going to come from now.
• find ways to generate revenue without obstructing the user experience, and in a way that optimizes your page for mobile. both of those factors will likely remain crucial to search engine rank.
• know that those solutions often exist in the content you create. make something valuable for the user. by gating it behind a landing page, you're generating leads -- and eventually sales -- in a much less intrusive way that brings visitors to you.

what do you think about google's latest announcement, and what are you doing to prepare for it? let us know in the comments.

 

originally published aug 25, 2016 8:00:00 am, updated december 11 2019

even if you love what you're doing, sitting and staring at a screen all day can take a toll on your well-being. and while there are ways to sneak in some exercise during the workday to offset a few of these negative effects, it's hard not to wonder: what kind of impact is this routine really having on my health?

the team at framesdirect answered that question in infographic form. what's more, they uncovered some tips for overcoming the hazards that often accompany desk jobs -- specifically the ones that impact our vision. for more, check out the infographic below.

know of any other tips for being more productive while working a desk job? leave a comment below.

originally published apr 28, 2016 6:00:00 am, updated february 01 2017

people have long faced nuisances from marketers and advertisers in their lives: telemarketing calls during dinner, purposely loud and obnoxious commercials interrupting tv shows, or piles of mailers that usually go straight into the recycling bin. these types of advertisements, which push products and services onto unwilling consumers, have been joined by a new breed of ads that exist solely in the digital marketplace. think pop up ads, distracting banner ads, or the dreaded auto-playing video ad.

at hubspot, we wondered: what type of customer experience do these online ads create? how do they affect a brand’s reputation? and most importantly, how should marketers engage consumers with ads in the future?

given today’s rapidly changing advertising landscape, the ramifications for marketers are clear: as more consumers ignore or even remove themselves from receiving interruptive ads, advertising needs to evolve. ads will never disappear. but as consumer behavior changes, marketers need to get smart about their digital ad spend. in the near future, marketers who want to connect with potential customers must supplement their target’s online experience, not interrupt it.

table of contents (7 min read)

1. ads are everywhere, but it doesn’t mean people like them
2. consumers are actively avoiding ads
3. conclusion: is this the age of native advertising?

ads are everywhere, but it doesn’t mean people like them

ads are ubiquitous. regardless of format, saturation of ads in the consumer experience is clear in our research (see figure 1)

figure 1

that’s great for the marketers behind the ads, right? not exactly.

yes, ads are getting a lot of eyeballs, but what type of experience do they generate? let’s break down the experience ratings for each type of ad.

figure 2

consumers really hate telemarketing calls; pop up ads; and autoplaying video ads. if you’ve encountered these in the past, it hardly needs to be explained why people react so negatively to them.

let’s focus on the best-rated types of ads instead (see figure 3). no ads received a positive response, but when you look at the neutral responses a common theme emerged: ads with neutral experience scores are either expected or do not disrupt a consumer’s browsing experience.

email newsletters and email ads are unique forms of advertising that consumers have opted into. they’re promotional assets that a consumer can choose to read or ignore. they include the option to unsubscribe from mailings completely. the control is all in the consumer’s hands.

figure 3

the next set of ‘neutral’ ads is sponsored content that appear in linkedin, facebook, and twitter, which fall into the broader category of native advertising. defining native advertising is tough, but native ads typically match the look and feel of the platform it appears in and provides *useful* content rather than a typical cta to purchase something. considering the behavior the previously mentioned social networks encourage -- fast consumption of information through a scroll down gesture -- it’s easy to see how a sponsored ad appearing natively in-platform creates an unobtrusive experience. in fact, viewers often don’t notice the difference between a well crafted native ad and a standard post or listing in the platform.

there is also less risk of damaging a brand’s reputation if marketers choose to go native (see figure 4). opting for telemarketing calls, pop up ads, or autoplaying ads can do real damage to your brand’s reputation, with 72% of respondents indicating they would have a lower opinion of a brand if they subjected the consumer to a pop up ad. consider: for every successful conversion you may get via a pop up ad, how many potential customers did you put off?

figure 4

consumers are actively avoiding ads

inbound marketers have long known that power has shifted to consumers. the same is becoming true of ads as well. consumers today are taking charge of their experience and avoiding interruptive advertising. they are unsubscribing from emails, skipping commercials, ignoring phone calls and direct mail, closing webpages, and, most troubling to the ad industry, blocking online ads.

email unsubscribes

in our study, 96% of consumers have unsubscribed from receiving emails (see figure 5). the top reason was the sheer volume of emails being they were receiving from a company. a worrying 52% also indicated they didn’t sign up for emails to begin with. with can-spam laws long in effect, it’s more likely that the respondents 1) forgot that they signed up for emails or 2) didn’t realize they were going to receive emails when they submitted personal information to a website.

figure 5

marketers have long used email sign up as a key metric for marketing success. but if email recipients (who don’t even remember signing up for emails to being with) just end up becoming inactive or unsubscribing, is that metric really meaningful? email may produce a neutral experience but that doesn’t mean marketers should send irrelevant emails to inactive email addresses. most consumers have reached a saturation point on the emails they’re willing to open, much less receive.

email nurturing should evolve so that marketers focus on getting targeted content to engaged leads and delighting your customers, not on the sheer size of their email database. to drive real engagement, marketers can send contextual emails to their database using more granular segmentation, personalize their messages, and of course, make sure the content of the email is stellar enough to warrant a open or a click.

pop up and autoplaying ads = goodbye visitor

four out of five consumers have closed a browser or exited a website because of an autoplaying ad or a pop up (see figure 6). so not only does the marketer’s paid advertisement not connect with a consumer, the web host of the advertisement also loses a visitor. coupled with the generally negative reaction consumers have for these types of interruptive online ads, it really seems like a lose-lose option to pursue.

figure 6

the rise of adblockers: the display advertiser’s nightmare

ad blockers are applications (like plugins or browser extensions) that remove or alter advertising content on a webpage -- when a user loads a web page, the ad blocker application compares the scripts that load against its own database of scripts that it is designed to block (see figure 7 for a simplified diagram). if there’s a match, the ad on the page gets blocked. the majority of ad blockers target banner ads and pop up ads, and many block native and search ads as well. some completely remove all advertising from a page while others focus on ads that compromise privacy by blocking tracking codes. 

figure 7

over half of our respondents have installed an ad blocker or plan to install one within 6 months (see figure 8). generationally, adoption is highest amongst millennials. adblocker plus, the most popular ad blocking app, has reached 300 million downloads worldwide, causing traditional advertisers to reach near hysterical levels of panic. the reaction is understandable, given that ad blocking has cost publishers nearly $22 billion in 2015 alone.

people now spend 51% of their time accessing the internet via mobile devices. ad block tools have been available on android and ios mobile devices, but this year, apple announced that ios 9 will allow ads to be blocked in its safari browser and within apps. the implications are huge: 20% of all web browsing happen in safari. people spend 85% of their mobile time in apps. apple’s ios announcement means advertiser’s access to both safari and apps will be cut.

display ads have long been the bread and butter of most online advertisers. now that millions of consumers are blocking them, marketers who still want to use paid advertising online must be smarter about the content they create and the channels they use to distribute it.

figure 8

is this the age of native advertising?

platforms are aggressively pushing out content. consumers are sick of interruptive ads. what does this mean for the future of advertising? hubspot found that there is a clear preference for native advertising amongst digital consumers while ads that interrupt (pop ups, auto-playing videos, etc) are the lowest rated. to make your ads less interruptive, use unobtrusive formats like native ads. while traditional advertising channels will never disappear, marketers must begin factoring in native into their overall marketing strategy.

native ads can be sponsored tweets on twitter, promoted listings on amazon, or ‘advertorial’ content published on sites like buzzfeed. the content can be written by the publisher’s staff or by the sponsor company (see figure 9 for a breakdown of all the types of native).

figure 9

for years, many industry analysts have been heralding the rise of native advertising. the shift to native appears to be accelerating as platforms have amped up their focus on advertising in-platform. besides the social networks mentioned previously, publishers like buzzfeed, snapchat, and even netflix have placed bets on ads within their platform this year. facebook, beyond their business line of targeted advertising, even announced intentions to co-opt traditional news media. as various platforms demand the ability to host an advertiser’s content natively rather than linking to a separate web property, there are huge ramifications on how marketers do their work.

marketers interested in targeting ads to specific consumers in an unobtrusive fashion should seriously consider spending some time on native. there are downsides: in exchange for delivering a better ad experience, hosting content on a third party platform -- usually in the ‘advertorial’ use case -- means a marketer will have spotty access to metrics that prove an ad campaign’s success. after spending years figuring out how to tie together metrics from content marketing via tracking click-throughs, it will be disheartening for marketers to face the loss of control over data when switching over to native.

however uncomfortable this shift to platform hosted content may be for marketers and advertisers, our sentiment data clearly show that these platforms have a good reason to bet on native advertising--people don’t hate it. it’s in the marketer’s best interest to pursue advertising that is not disruptive to their intended target, even better, caters to the content needs of users. ensure your targeting is focused. most importantly, your ad’s creative content must be relevant and remarkable to your audience.

research methodology

 hubspot fielded a global online survey from december 2015 through january 2016. the survey was translated into spanish and portuguese. the responses were sourced through via email invitations, blog promotion, and social sharing. no personal information was collected and no incentives were offered.

this report contains links for hubspot content, products, and services.

originally published feb 8, 2016 6:00:00 am, updated december 11 2019

this post originally appeared on hubspot's agency post. to read more content like this, subscribe to agency post.

don't use more than three typefaces. follow a grid. keep it simple. 

you've heard these common design rules repeated over and over again -- by your teacher, your art director, and even that friend who uses microsoft paint to design his band posters.

download 195+ visual marketing design templates to use for social media posts, infographics, and more. 

but adhering to the rules doesn't always leave room for creative inspiration. as david ogilvy said, "talent, i believe, is most likely to be found among nonconformists, dissenters, and rebels."

in marketing and advertising, we value those who are willing to challenge the norm and question the how -- the creatives who discover a novel solution by ignoring the brief and looking at the problem in a completely new way.

but you can only break the rules if you know the rules. 

designmantic created the below slideshare outlining the typical rules followed in design and why you should consider breaking them this year. check it out to learn how exactly you can become a more rebellious designer.

 

originally published feb 6, 2016 8:00:00 am, updated july 28 2017

to listen to this episode in your browser, click the play button below, or click here to listen in your itunes app.

check out the latest recaps of the growth show episodes by clicking here.

originally published jan 28, 2016 6:00:00 am, updated february 01 2017

this post originally appeared on hubspot's agency post. to read more content like this, subscribe to agency post.

this week, mary meeker, a partner at kleiner perkins caufield and byers, released her annual internet trends report. it's the 20th edition in a series spanning back to 1994 -- the year yahoo launched and three years before google.com was registered.

this year, internet growth rates are slowing down, but the re-invention of how we use the internet is accelerating. for example, the report reveals how much mobile has been changing internet usage. the services we use to buy our homes, rent cars, order food, get a hotel room, and shop are inherently mobile. 

in addition, she also highlighted how the internet has changed the way we work. freelancers and on-demand workers are a growing segment of the workforce -- up to 34% -- and this flexible workforce has fueled the internet-based service economy. etsy, uber, and ebay provide a platform for a person to become a business.

the deck is an impressive 197 slides, and while the entire presentation is worth a read, we've selected the most interesting stats and charts that highlight how the internet is changing.

overall internet usage growth is slowing, but mobile video is accelerating

consumer internet usage growth rates have slowed down -- up 21% in 2014 versus an increase of 31% in 2012. this slow in growth is also reflected in mobile internet usage. 

but global video usage rates continue to accelerate -- both for internet video and mobile video. video accounts for 64% of internet traffic, and mobile video traffic accounts for 55% of all mobile traffic, which is an increase from 50% in 2012. 

mobile usage has outpaced desktop

usage of mobile devices is increasing while desktop use remains stagnant. people now spend 2.8 hours accessing digital media using a mobile device, while only 2.4 hours a day using a desktop or laptop computer. 

ad spending doesn't align with media consumption

the amount of time people spend consuming media to the advertising spend is disproportionate in some areas such as print, which has a ratio of 4% consumption time to 18% ad spend. on the other hand, 24% of media consumption is spent on mobile, but media spend only accounts for 8% of total internet ad spending.  

internet ad spend is down

as we saw in the above chart, mobile advertising is an opportunity brands need to take advantage of while the market is still maturing. mobile ad spend saw 34% growth over the previous year, while desktop ad spend only grew by 11%. however, overall internet ad spend is declining. 

vertical viewing is in

vertical viewing accounts for 29% of view time, up from 5% in 2010. this trend is a reflection of the rise in popularity of mobile video consumption on social platforms such as snapchat. the ephemeral social sharing site has even asked advertisers to use vertical videos, as these are viewed to completion nine times more frequently than horizontal videos.  

visual content is king

marketers looking to target and engage with millennials or gen zers and have not invested in visual -- either image- or video-based communication -- should pay attention to the below chart. usage of facebook and twitter for those ages 12 to 24 has decreased, while usage has increased on platforms such as instagram, snapchat, pinterest, and whatsapp. in addition, teens value instagram above all other social networks. 

pinterest isn't just for women planning weddings

pinterest is gaining traction with men. pins related to cars and motorcycles saw a 118% growth rate, and men's fashion pins were up by 96%. 

industry-specific opportunities exist

there are still sectors that are in their internet "infancy." opportunities in the fields of education, healthcare, and government exist, and companies in these industries could reap the benefits of making more information and services available online. 

view the full internet trends report below:

originally published may 29, 2015 2:00:00 pm, updated july 28 2017