I’m not gonna lie, video ads can be cool, but lately, they are a peeve of mine because people are abusing them. I’m not certain if the people are desperate to make money online, they don’t understand what it does to their website, or if they are aware of what it does to their visitors?
Watch Out For Site Speed With Those Video Ads!
When I talk about video ads, I’m not talking about the pop-up with a video. That is annoying enough, and pop-ups if not used right, especially on the initial entry of the website is like raping your eyeballs. Yes, I said it! I didn’t cuss. I just laid it out on the table, in plain sight.
So, the actual video ads I’m talking about, are the ones that are sometimes used in 1, 2, or 6 on a page, much like Google Adsense ads. They may be between the content of a post and comments. They may even be in the sidebar.
The ones I’ve seen, well, these videos are on autoplay! So, the site loads, and with 3 videos playing, I get scared to death because the garbled noise sounds like some demon is about to spring from my computer.
There is NO reason on Earth why 3 videos should autoplay on a page… ever! That also goes for 2.
I know this post seems like a rant. Wait… I’m not going to apologize… it really is a rant, but it’s also a public service announcement.
Yes, Video ads can help you make money…
… but you aren’t going to get gobs of money right away. It works like adsense. They deliver the video ads and if people watch or click on them, then you might get a few cents tossed your way. For some people, those few cents take a long time to pile up for the minimum payout.
Putting more than 1 video advertisement is NOT necessary and won’t make you more money. In fact, you may need to go back and check the company delivering the ads, to see if there is a Usage policy on how many videos can be seen on a page. Google Adsense has one.
People come to your website to read, not to wait for your webpage to load all day!
I kid you not! One of the sites that had more than 3 videos on autoplay was so slow, that here is what Pingdom (1st image) and GTmetrix (2nd image) said:
(Note: site name blocked out to protect site owner. Also, you can click on the images to view them larger.)
So Pingdom gave up with the huge WTF, and GTmetrix was nice enough to say it took a little over 22 seconds for the site to load. I’m not sure how that happened, as I tried Pingdom a few times on a few of the same site’s pages, and got the same result.
My reaction, well, I was not happy, and finally, when the site seemed to be loaded, I had a tough time scrolling. It was like pulling teeth or coaxing a donkey to finally move.
So, now that I’ve shared the short data and expressed my own reaction, here’s a note to you all if you haven’t heard.
You really should be aiming to have your website under 4 seconds. Remember, there are a lot more people on mobile and tablet, and some of them are using sucky wifi too. You might like to look at it, but other people have to look at it too!
And just a thought, if you’re not making much money on it anyway, why have 2 or 3 video ads on a single web page?
So, what can you do to still make money on your blog?
If you’re going to use ANY, use 1, and strategically place them. Better yet, try not placing one that autoplays. Give your users a choice.
Try using other ad programs, like text or banner ads to switch up your advertisements. Video ads can be pretty cool, but not like this. It’s an annoyance. It also looks desperate.
Try also creating a product that you can sell like an ebook. Oh, and you’re welcome to view my Make Money Using WordPress presentation that can give you more ideas.
Alright, so I’ve said what I’ve had to say. Now, it’s your turn.
If you’ve been doing this? What motivated you to do this? Were you aware of what it does for your websites load time and for your website visitor’s user experience? Are you going to correct the problem?
For those who haven’t done this, have you gone to someone’s website and seen several video ads on autoplay? What were your initial thoughts when you did see them? What did you do?
You’re absolutely right. I think autoplay is the worst on any site. It’s the quickest way for me to abandon a site. Sure, you might get a tenth of a cent from the ads but I am definitely never coming back and never doing anything else that will help your site. It’s just the worst.
If net neutrality ever dies many of those sites will be unviewable because all those videos loading will make the website load like a 1995 website.
Autoplay is one of my pet hates! . There’s nothing worse than audio blasting out when the rest of the family are asleep or trying to listen to their own things. It’s so common now that I wear headphones a lot of the time. I dislike it when I’ve had the volume turned up for a video with low sound and suddenly get ear blasted with one that’s really loud.
I’m coming across more and more sites that use photos and short explanations with each photo on it’s own page surrounded by ads, including video ads. You need to click next to see the next photo. Even with my fast connection this is painfully slow. I’ll abandon this sort of page immediately unless the info is something I really need to know and I haven’t found it elsewhere.
On my sites I agree auto-play is very annoying, however on some it can work, for example on Facebook, I think the thing that makes it either a hater or okayer is the sound, if it just plays, fine, but for me when it starts playing and with noise it is annoying, BBC News have also started doing it!
Great site keep it up!
Charles
Load time has been something we’ve been working on hard over at our site. Luckily, we don’t have to worry about video ads, as that’s not where we make our money. I have been really reluctant to put up even a pop up, though right now we have one running with and without a video on autoplay in a split test. It’s a promotional video of our firm. Hopefully not anything anyone could compare to “raping your eyeballs.”
Hello Nile, I do have to agree with the majority on this one my friend! Those autoplay videos are super annoying.
I visited a site the other day and had ti turn the dam thing off three times before I decided I had enough. It was a great article too.
What a great article one I do hope A LOT of people see.
Thanks for sharing
Chery :))
Even one video on autoplay is bad enough, as far as I’m concerned. I often open more than one tab at a time, and I don’t know where on which site the loud talking is coming from? Chances are, the video is going to be louder than anything else I might have on too. Thanks for bringing this to our attention!
Hi!i
You write really very well, thanks for the information.
Keep writing such informative, I am a big fan of your blog.
Thanks for sharing.
very informative and amazingly writeen this will surely help us fellow bloggers in this community to excel and enhance!
There is truly nothing worse than a website that has a very slow load time. If a video is affecting the load time, I agree that you are probably doing more harm than good for your website. I do feel that Video ads can be very effective but only if they do not change your site load time.
Thanks for sharing about video ads. I always prefer to play the video myself than when its on autoplay.
And of course no one wants to wait forever for the website to load.
This is great information for video Ads. This is better for me and learned a lot, Thanks for sharing with us.
Thanks Nile!
It definitely needed to be said!
In fact, thanks to you,I could just as easily create
a “The Five Really Dumb Marketing
Mistakes Newbie Marketers Make And How To Correct Them!
Post, thanks to your excellent article!
Putting trying to make a profit above serving your audience is a really big mistake!
Thanks for sharing some excellent advice!
It’s very necessary that our site loading speed should be very less because it boost the user experience. And how we can low our site speed by following the steps introduced in the blog post. Nice blog post keep the good work going.