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MNHQ

Native ads on Mumsnet Talk topics

23 replies

JustineMumsnet · 17/10/2016 11:14

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.

Native ads on Mumsnet Talk topics
Native ads on Mumsnet Talk topics
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MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 17:43

@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.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 17:44

@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

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 17:45

@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?

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 17:47

@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.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 17:50

@cozietoesie

By the way, is this meant to be a way round 'ad-blocking' ? Smile 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.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 17:54

@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...

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 17:54

@FrancisCrawford

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

I'm just going through it!

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 17:57

@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

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 18:01

@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.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 18:03

@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.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 18:18

@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...

MNHQ

JessicaMumsnet · 19/10/2016 18:27

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.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 20:00

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.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 20:04

@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.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 20:06

@FrancisCrawford

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

I think I've pretty much covered everything but if I've missed anything in particular please do shout.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 20:55

@ChathamDockyard

I've never been redirected to a porn site in any other forum. Sad

I don't think it's ok to run these ads unless you can be certain that posters won't get redirected. It's an unaccectable risk and I'm surprised it's one that's allowed to happen time after time.

I mentioned earlier in this thread that the reason I really dislike these types of ads is that they are designed to be clicked by mistake or to be mistaken for genuine threads. I find this misleading and sneaky. If you have an ad in a side bar a user can choose whether they want to engage or not but with this type of stealth ad you are, to some extent, removing that choice. I accidently clicked on one of the ads when I didn't want to.

If you want to force posters to engage with advertisers at least be honest about it. Some free online games that I play require me to watch a 5 second video before I can play. It's irritating as hell but at least it's clear and honest. What Mumsnet is doing with these ads isn't.

I don't think anyone's actually being redirected - it's a pop up - but nonetheless it's not tolerable I agree - as said we'll have another look at this as it's been going on for too long and I thought it was much more isolated incidences than it appears to have been.

Tbh I don't agree that it's unclear that these are ads in the topic list - they have a pic - unlike everything else - they say sponsored by and ad on them. And I genuinely think that if we required MN users to watch a 5 second video before accessing the site I might as well get my coat...

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 21:52

@FrancisCrawford

Hi Justine, The intrusive nature of the ads hasn't been tackled, or the fact that accessing the site via phone means it's really easy to click on them by mistake. Or the resoundingly negative reaction to the ads.

We're pretty used to mentioning "penguin bollards" and the. Finding ads for them popping up. But these "native ads" are bang in the middle of the home page of threads and that makes them much more intrusive and much easier to click on in error.

I agree that having them labelled advert would be a good idea.
But I'm not sure there is a way around the size and placement of the ads when using a phone.

Ok we'll take another look at the usability/ clicking in error issue as this is not the intention I'm sure. Will get back to you on that.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 19/10/2016 21:52

I'm signing off for now but we'll keep monitoring the thread. Thanks for all the input.

MNHQ

AngieMumsnet · 20/10/2016 13:47

Hi All,

Apologies again for the issues that you've been experiencing - here's a quick update on where we're at.

The ads look like actual topics
Native advertising does reflect the look and feel of the site's content - the idea is to be fully integrated so they're less intrusive than standard display ads, making for a decent user experience while supporting the site through advertising. As Justine said up thread, many platforms including Facebook are now doing a similar thing, and we think the fundamental idea is a sound one. We're very sorry about the implementation issues though - more below on this.

The ads are showing up in sensitive topics
This was certainly an error and was rectified yesterday. We've added an extra safety net by asking our partner AdyouLike to also exclude sensitive topic URLS at their end too.

They squish the whole page over, cutting off the right side
This was an issue with one of our partners - apologies. We've been in touch with them and we think that they've addressed this now.

The ads are covering threads
Again - huge apologies. We're working to correct this as we speak.

Clicking opens multiple web pages and then the eBay app
This also shouldn't happen and we're speaking to the tech provider about this now.

As Justine said we'll certainly do some more user testing on whether it's too easy to click in error on mobile, and we'll continue to refine the new ads in terms of their look and feel, with the aim of making them feel a bit less spammy and intrusive as some users feel they currently are. Thanks again for your feedback and of course do continue to let us know your thoughts, and to alert us to any problems that continue.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 28/10/2016 16:38

Hi all,
Thanks so much for the feedback - we're going to take this format down for now and talk to the providers about solutions to some of the issues raised. I tend to agree that being taken to an external site isn't ideal (and actually not what happens in FB model - which I know isn't the be all and end all but they have managed to find an format that doesn't seem to annoy users so much, so that's why we were using them as a template). We also agree that on mobile, they are too large so we possibly need to lose the picture. And we need to make it clearer where the the ad starts and finishes to avoid erroneous clicking. So we'll withdraw them while we work on all those issues. Sorry for any headaches - please consider unblocking your adblockers!

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 28/10/2016 16:40

@CarrotVan

Having installed Ad Block Plus I'm horrified at the amount of ads it's blocking - 13 on this page!

There's no way we have 13 ads on a page - 2 (or three if you include this format) is standard - so it must be identifying other scripts as ads... thanks for the heads up, will talk to Tech team about that.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 28/10/2016 16:41

@BeyondReasonablyDoubts

Can I also take this opportunity to whinge about the adverts at the top that widen once the page has 99% loaded. So you click a link at the top just as the ad widens and you end up getting dragged off to some random other site (today it's nationwide)

hi - i think this is about speed of connection - ads taking a while to download - we tend to load the content first then the ads so users don't have to wait, but I'll definitely look into it to see if there's anything to be done. thanks for raising.

MNHQ

JustineMumsnet · 28/10/2016 16:43

@noblegiraffe

I just thought a thread had been deleted from a topic because it was no longer appearing on the discussion list.

It hadn't been deleted, its place on the list was just being taken by an ad instead - you could see it being replaced as the page, then the ad loaded. It's not like the picture above where the ad text interferes with the thread title, the thread was just gone. Once someone posted on it, it reappeared back at the top of the topic list, and presumably some other thread disappeared with the ad taking its place.

This is certainly not intentional - ads are meant to slot in not replace. We will check that out, thanks.

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