Native ads on Mumsnet Talk topics

[JustineMumsnet]

Hi all,
I wanted to give you a heads up about some Native Ads we're introducing on Talk (images attached). They will appear on Talk topic home pages and will only appear once per page. We have tested them on users - we tested them in threads and on Talk topics and the feedback was that users weren't so keen on seeing them within a thread but didn't mind them on the topic pages, so that's where we're putting them. Hopefully you won't find them intrusive and they may even be interesting/useful sometimes. Obviously we already have a similar type of thing with our in-house inline ads on Talk theads, so hopefully it won't be too much of a shock/ imposition. Please do let us know your thoughts and as ever, if there are any advertisers/ partners you'd actively like us to seek out then please do let us know.

Really annoying I'm afraid.

These ads are stopping me accessing actual threads which is very annoying. Thankfully they do seem to disappear with AdBlocker which also gets rids of the horrible animated whole page background ads

They also seem to sit over the top of an actual thread (rather than moving II) meaning if I click before the page has fully loaded I keep being redirected. I'm sure that's nice for any click trackers but bloody irritating when I'm interested in the thread that's being covered over

I guess they're 'trying things out', usual. Goodness knows where they'll pop up!

Native ads are supposed to be 'buried in content'. The thought is that that makes it more difficult for people to block/hide them - although there is a linked thought that sites should be aspiring to make them so useful and informative - and complementary to content - that that won't matter anyway.

@PolterGoose

And this on a board for MNers with SNs.

Yes they shouldn't show on the SN board - that's an error which we'll get on to.

@Ausernotanumber

Really annoying. Intrustive. Please can we have darker colours for op and our own posts it's awful

Yes darker colour is on the way

@usual

I'm seeing them within threads?

Have I read the OP wrong?

They shouldn't be within threads - though we've had internal messages in threads for some time - are you sure that's not what you're seeing?

@Queenbean

And now on this thread I've had porn popping up

What the actual fuck MN.

The porn thing is horrific I know - sorry - it's one of the ad providers being hacked but impossible to know which one. We're on it though.

@cozietoesie

By the way, is this meant to be a way round 'ad-blocking' ? I'm just interested.

No they have surfaced because they work on a mobile phone and regular ads don't - facebook have been using this format successfully for a couple of years at least.

@RedGrapeCornSnake

They also seem to sit over the top of an actual thread (rather than moving II) meaning if I click before the page has fully loaded I keep being redirected. I'm sure that's nice for any click trackers but bloody irritating when I'm interested in the thread that's being covered over

That's not how it should work - would be grateful for a screenshot if you can manage...

@FrancisCrawford

What about all the other points made on this thread and the overwhelmingly negative reaction, Justine?

I'm just going through it!

@cozietoesie

Sorry, Justine, but as they currently stand, they're awful.

If you get clicks on them, I suspect it will be out of curiosity - followed very closely by irritation. Clicking will not equal revenue I think.

They're also detracting from some pretty personal posts and the ads' subject matter looks to be almost trivialising their content.

Could you ask your Sales and Marketing team to rethink their approach a bit?

Definitely - they are supposed to be only high quality brands, only on threads, limited to one per page, and not on any sensitive topics. And certainly not covering any other content.

So looks like we're having some teething troubles. Please do let us know if and when you see anything that doesn't comply with the above? Thanks

@AuntieStella

In the past I have recommended that people use the topics.

I don't think I'll be doing that again with these abominations in them.

Unpleasantly intrusive.

And it is a great shame you have chosen to prioritise this over fixing things like TIO

Hi we haven't prioritised them over TIO that different folks working on these projects - not quite the same skill set.

@Becca19962014

Justine, whilst I understand the need for ads placing them over existing threads which may or may not have had replies isn't fair on that user and interrupts the flow of conversation.

I understand why you need ads, but you run the risk of losing users with this. Do you really need to be advertising children's Halloween costumes in the sex topic? Or in bereavement? No it's totally inappropriate.

I too have outstanding issues which haven't been fixed - one I've not even had a reply to which can prevent me from posting altogether and my 'threads I'm on' is still a total mess.

Agreed - they shouldn't overlay things we'll look at that. And they shouldn't appear in bereavement topic at all - apologies there's a bug in our precluded list somewhere - we'll fix it.

@NauticalDisaster

They are intrusive and annoying.

I am accessing the MN desktop site via an iPad mini and the ads are blocking threads so I can't click on them, please see screenshots. The first one shows the list of threads before the ad pops up and the second shows a thread missing and the intrusive ad.

Ok thanks Nautical - that doesn't look right - we'll get on to that...

Hello,
Just to add here, we're very sorry there was a bug with the exclusion of sensitive topics. That has been fixed now and if anyone does see any inappropriate ads or appearing in places they shouldn't please do flag (preferably with screenshots) and we'll address asap.

If you're going to stick with them then hoe about limiting them to chat? Avoids the situations highlighted above where they're inappropriate for the specialist board's subject matter. Chat/ active must have highest footfall of users/ visitors so high visibility still for the ads.

I completely understand the need for MN to generate revenue via selling advertising, but, I've been using this site for 4 years and it's getting ridiculous now. The porn thing has been going on for months. It's fucking discusting. Granted I'm not techie at all. But. You've identified that it's directly linked to an advert. Yet it's stil going on and you haven't said to your advertisers - look one of you is dodgy. We're pulling your ads until you sort it. I don't need that type of shit popping up on my phone / god forbid my monitor during my lunch break at work. I also massively dislike your partnership with Cadbury's. Every 'tell Cadbury's what you think of x' sponsored thread descends into posters stating they no longer buy Cadbury's since the Kraft takeover and asking them to revert back to the original recipie without palm oil yet there's never a rep coming on for a q&a. You take their money but you don't seem to take on board the comments by a majority of posters on the threads.

Sorry for the rant but the Cadbury's partnership and the porn issue really fucking irritate me.

it's awful awful, I thought that mn had been hijacked again. With so many issues with other ads, porn popping up unexpectedly for people, so many issues with tio, basically being ignored when reporting serious concerns and you now think it's a good idea to do this?

I'm seriously wondering whether mn is still for me.

Is mn in serious financial difficulties? that's the only thing I can think of.

I agree the porn thing is not acceptable - the problem is we don't directly talk to these advertisers, it's an ad network issue and they have thousands upon thousands of advertisers any one of whose code could have been infiltrated. But I'll talk to the team again and see if there's anyway we can narrow it down to one particular network and then stop taking their ads.

The cadbury's partnership I know some felt strongly about - but I really don't think it was a majority - we had many, many more entrants into comps etc than folks complaining on the thread. We have lots of companies on our banned list (more than any other ad funded site I've come across tbh) but Cadbury's aren't.

I agree about ads on sensitive topics - it's an error that they ever showed on those and it should have been fixed or if not will be tomorrow - apologies for that.

@ohidoliketobe

If you're going to stick with them then hoe about limiting them to chat? Avoids the situations highlighted above where they're inappropriate for the specialist board's subject matter. Chat/ active must have highest footfall of users/ visitors so high visibility still for the ads.

I completely understand the need for MN to generate revenue via selling advertising, but, I've been using this site for 4 years and it's getting ridiculous now. The porn thing has been going on for months. It's fucking discusting. Granted I'm not techie at all. But. You've identified that it's directly linked to an advert. Yet it's stil going on and you haven't said to your advertisers - look one of you is dodgy. We're pulling your ads until you sort it. I don't need that type of shit popping up on my phone / god forbid my monitor during my lunch break at work. I also massively dislike your partnership with Cadbury's. Every 'tell Cadbury's what you think of x' sponsored thread descends into posters stating they no longer buy Cadbury's since the Kraft takeover and asking them to revert back to the original recipie without palm oil yet there's never a rep coming on for a q&a. You take their money but you don't seem to take on board the comments by a majority of posters on the threads.

Sorry for the rant but the Cadbury's partnership and the porn issue really fucking irritate me.

@OhYouBadBadKitten

it's awful awful, I thought that mn had been hijacked again. With so many issues with other ads, porn popping up unexpectedly for people, so many issues with tio, basically being ignored when reporting serious concerns and you now think it's a good idea to do this?

I'm seriously wondering whether mn is still for me.

Is mn in serious financial difficulties? that's the only thing I can think of.

Well that's why we started the thread in site stuff - to give a warning that this format is legit. It's always worth checking on SS if you have any doubts. No MN not in serious financial difficulties when I last looked but we are definitely trying to make a living. As said Facebook has been running exactly this format for a while - it's not particularly radical.