Subject: Pop Ups and Exit Traffic (was The advertising industry brought the banner ad) down.

From: Carmen Paulino <clpsf_at_sirius.com>
Date: Fri 18 May 2001 11:53:10 -0500

DENISE TURNEY <RCampb3422_at_aol.com> WROTE:

>I've hard that pop-up windows are effective at getting
>click-throughs. I'm not convinced of this though,
>because whenever I see a pop-up window, I usually leave
>a site or close the pop-up window . . . . Do any of you
>have success with pop-up ads . . The only way I could
>see them being effective would be if they popped-up
>as a visitor was leaving a site.

TO WHICH ROB FRANKEL <rob_at_robfrankel.com> REPLIED:

>Okay, maybe it's just coincidence . . . . On my
>main site, I added an EXIT window that pops up only one
>time, when you actually leave the home page. I wanted
>to make sure that people didn't have to dig through the
>whole site and miss anything I've got to sell. On the
>site for my book and tapes, I added an INTRO window that
>tells the user about the product updates (i.e., latest
>universities and colleges that use it, etc.).

Hey Rob, just want to confirm that as you surmised, your
intuition about coincidence is correct, at least as to me.
I found the popups as annoying as I find them on any site.
You mention that your sales increased. But did your sales
increase because of the popups or because you were
concurrently running your promotion for FrankelTips,
which undoubtedly brought your extensive FrankelBiz
afficionadoes to the site to sign up? (Notice how
virus-like I'm being?) At first, I actually looked at
the intro popup because I couldn't believe you actually
did this! I visited your site two or three more times
after that and I can definitely tell you that I clicked
the popups out of existence even before they fully
loaded. But the key question is, will this stop me from
visiting in the future? Not any less than your
self-proclaimed *obnoxious* bobbing head has. The fact is
that if the content or draw is appealing for the most part,
then we viewers will put up with the less appealing stuff.
Why not, it's your site and you perform a valuable service,
e.g., your branding forum. But most significantly, despite
your bobbing head and popups, I still added to your coffer.

ROB FRANKEL <rob_at_robfrankel.com> ALSO WROTE:

>My conclusion: if you deploy pop-ups judiciously and
>make them less intrusive than they can be, they really can
>work. I also recommend using no more than one pop up per
>web visit. make up your mind when and where you want it
>to pop and leave it at that.

I'm still curious (legitimately) about your conclusion that
popups might increase sales. Is your conclusion based on
actual tracking and analysis of the popup traffic and usage
in connection with sales, or just a guess because your
sales increased?

Carmen Paulino



Received on Fri May 18 2001 - 11:53:10 CDT