Active discussions

Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Talk

Back to thread
Original poster

MASSIVE ADS halfway down the thread page

7 replies

SinisterBumFacedCat · 10/06/2019 13:33

I don’t know if this is a new thing, i’m sure it’s been done before and wasn’t popular. There are massive ads halfway down the page of threads, it’s very disruptive to the flow and also makes me think it’s the end of the thread. On one thread there was a ad placed straight after the OPs first post, making it appear that there are no other posts on the thread. I am logged in.

Go to post
MNHQ

JanineMumsnet · 10/06/2019 15:19

Hi @SinisterBumFacedCat, thanks for your feedback. You're right, we have tinkered about with the rules for where ads appear within a thread for mobile users. Ads have always appeared within threads for logged in users, but the rules for where those ads appeared was different. For example, if you were logged in and reading a particularly long thread you would have seen an ad after the 12th post. We received feedback to say this was jarring to user experience as often users thought the thread had finished at 12 posts and didn't read beyond it. We reworked these rules and immediately after the OP felt like a good place, as before you go into a thread you have generally seen how many replies there are to know whether to read beyond the OP or not.

We have also changed the rules for logged out users too, but for logged in users we try to keep the number of ads to the bare minimum.

MNHQ

AnyaMumsnet · 11/06/2019 11:18

Hi there all,

Thank you all so much for your feedback, it's really valuable and we'll take it on board. Flowers Please be assured we are reading the thread.

The screenshots disappearing issue is a separate sitewide issue, that we're currently looking into.

MNHQ

FlissMumsnet · 15/06/2019 21:00

Hi Everyone,

We're so sorry these ads are not hitting the spot - we'll take a look and see if there's anything we can do to make them less jarring.

Thanks for your patience while we work this stuff out.

MNHQ

JanineMumsnet · 17/06/2019 08:52

@WeShouldOpenABar I'm really sorry about this. This shouldn't be happening at all. As a logged in user you should not see more than 3 ads per page on a mobile device. Could you share a screen shot?

I can assure you we haven't increased the size of the ads, nor have we made them more interactive, so it shouldn't be the case that ads are eating up more of your data. I am sorry if this appears to be the case - it shouldn't be.

As I said, we have changed the rules of the ads in order to create more consistency - the rule previously was that a square ad would appear after the 12th post, but feedback has been that users thought this was jarring as they weren't aware the thread continued beyond and therefore it was disruptive to user experience. The rationale for after the OP is because we need to have an ad mid thread (as we had before) and typically a user knows how many posts are in a thread before they open a thread so after the OP would be less jarring to that experience.

It's clear though that some users don't agree, and nothing is set in stone and we are open to suggestions. We will also look at alternative rules for where these ads might appear.

MNHQ

JanineMumsnet · 17/06/2019 10:42

Hi @StoorieHoose I'm afraid we do need to have an ad mid thread - we have had ads mid thread for a number of years now.

At the moment with online advertising advertisers often buy ads based on their 'viewability'. This means is that if the ad isn't viewable on the screen for more than a few seconds we don't get any money for that ad. Ads right at the bottom of the page have a low viewability score, as you'd expect. It would be rare to find a site that is primarily paid for by advertising without ads mid article/page. We do try to keep the number of ads a to a minimum for our logged in users - if you are logged out you will likely notice one more per page on mobile.

But to be clear, these new rules introduced last week are not to make the ads more viewable. But it's worth noting that from time to time we may have to switch around where ads appear on a page to keep up with the latest way buyers measure and pay for their ads.

It's a tricky balance that we don't always get perfect first time, so we are open to opinions and we take them on board.

MNHQ

JanineMumsnet · 18/06/2019 09:23

We agree wholeheartedly about being careful about what ads appear in sensitive topics/threads. We have an extensive list of sensitive topics which we are careful about adding new ads/widgets to these sections.

@InterchangeableEmma that is a really useful suggestion, and we will add this to our list of changes.

Regarding bookmarking - we actually did make it so that threads automatically got added to your TIW, but it was clear people use the feature in a different way, so we are reworking things. I agree a bookmarked list would be useful, and we will definitely look to have this in the future, but that requires a much bigger change at the moment, so it might take a number of months to get something like that. Best rest assured we are thinking about it and agree it's a good idea.

@LittleMissNaice That has definitely been the rule for the last 3 years - you've just been lucky if you haven't noticed them. At the moment you are likely to see what we call an 'inliner' in that slot, if there is one set to appear in that topic.

MNHQ

JanineMumsnet · 24/06/2019 09:08

@Cakemadeoffruit this is what is known as a 'sticky' leaderboard, which we've had for a couple of years. As you scroll it sticks at the top. You are still able to read content.

Watch this thread for updates

Tap "Watch" to get all the latest updates

End of posts

There are no more MNHQ posts on this thread

Back to thread