Silence is gold, according to users

A little while ago, an ad for The Nun was doing its rounds on YouTube, when suddenly it was taken down from the platform on request by the users. The ad consisted in a black screen that would show the volume control like it was taking over your computer to get your attention, then when it succeeded, The title character of the movie would jump at you with a terrifying scream. The ad generated many complains on the internet on account of the intrusive and horrible sound effect.

Facebook, why are you like this?

There are many reasons why publishers keep using the autoplay sound ad format: they know every smartphone now has a button to keep them silenced or on vibrator; even though subtitles are an option, they can be very distracting of what’s happening on-screen and, most importantly, videos are quickly becoming the biggest source of income for Facebook and the rest of social media. Even Twitter has just launched it’s own video ad platform worldwide, so we can be sure that video isn’t going anywhere and that it will always be better with sound.

But they whispered…no

It’s well known that autoplay sound ads disgust users everywhere, even so the marketing agency Treads and The Coalition for Better Ads conducted an investigation about what users think of this subject. Teads found that 53% of internet users hate autoplay ads, while The CBA reported that in desktops, users hate: pop-ups, sound autoplay, ads with countdowns and ads that take 30% of the screen; in mobile they reported the same negative reactions while adding also prestitial ads, full screen ads, flashy animations and ads that require too much phone real estate.

Who should we listen to?

Obviously, the user. Disgust of invasive sound is as old as myspace and has caused many embarassing moments for every one of us and now that Facebook is considering ads on their private message platform, it’s important that we think about what’s important for the user, things like avoiding being invasive to call the customer’s attention but rather making better content that calls them naturally and makes them want to hear the ad on their own.

Fuentes