What Are Pop Ads?

Pop ads are nothing new. They’ve been there ever since the starting days of the internet, around the late 90s. Popup ads were invented by a guy that worked in tripod.com, back in the day. The reason popups were invented wasn’t to annoy users, but to separate the content from the ads. Advertisers were worried that their ad will be associated with the content created by the publishers. Specifically, there was a car company that bought a banner placement, and that banner appeared on a page with adult content. Pop up windows seemed like a good solution for this kind of "conflict" - the ad appears on a separate window and it’s unrelated to the content, thus preserving the advertiser’s image.

Pop ads have established themselves as an industry standard, and are considered one of the most effective ways to advertise. They catch the attention of the user, who sometimes ignores regular banners, and they have high CTR.

Every decent ad network offers publishers some sort of pop ads, and with good reason. Pop ads have quite a few advantages:

• Pop ads grab the attention of the user.
• In order to close the pop-up, a user has to find the X or the “close” link. The few seconds that are required to do that also make him consider the ad. The user actually has to decide if they are interested in what the ad has to offer. Those few seconds make all the difference.
• Pop ads improve conversion rate, especially if they offer a discount or a specific product that is related to the content of the website.

Specifically, pop-ups have a disadvantage - they tend to annoy the user because they are slightly more intrusive than other types of ads. This is where popunder and New Tab Ads come in. We'll tell you more about New Tab Ads in future posts. For the time being, you should know that New Tab ads are great, because they get the user's attention, but not utilizing a new window, just a new browser tab. The tab can be closed easily and is considered to be more compliant with Google's policies.

New Tab ads deliver similar results in terms of conversion rate and can also be sent to the back of the tab in focus.

What’s a popunder ad?

Popunder is the lesser known variation of pop ads. Most people know about pop-ups, but pop-under isn’t as established, although they are as effective as pop-ups.

The functionality of popunder is basically the same as a pop-up ad, except it shows beneath the tab the user is looking at. Unlike a popup, which covers the content (or parts of it), a popunder appears behind the content in a separate tab or window. On mobile, the ad shows more of itself as the user scrolls.

Is popunder a good ad format?

The fact that popunders are noninvasive, makes them a great choice of ad for publishers and advertisers alike. Since popunders appear as a new browser window, they don’t hassle the user or hide the content from him. When the user has finished reading the content, and wants to close the tabs, he will see the popunder and consider it. This is a sophisticated, gentle way of advertising that tends to generate top tier traffic. The fact that the user gets a CHOICE whether to look at the ad or not, is a great advantage, and makes this sort of ad a great addition to any advertising portfolio.

More Popunder Advantages

A popunder CTR can be as high as 7% and they are relatively low cost-per-click - so they are a good option if your budget is limited at this point.

Popunder ads appear once a day and for unique users only. They help you save money and minimize non-target traffic.

Popunders are also separate from the publisher's content, so they won’t change or mess up your website design.

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