The pissed off bounce
That’s it. Seattlepi.com, you are dead to me. The jumping ads and crap is too much.
That’s right, I can’t take it any more. I’ve been going to Seattlepi.com for years. Even before the paper edition went away. I can’t tell you why I’ve preferred the PI to the Times but for years I have. That has come to an end. The reason? The ads. I can deal with ads but the intrusive nature of the ads on seattlepi.com has become too much. I go to the site and start reading a story and then the page jumps around or changes all together and some sort of flash-based ad jumps in the middle of my screen. I know I can probably use some sort of plug-in to block this sort of thing but I shouldn’t have to.
In a previous job I used to buy media. I bought print, radio and web but I was always a little suspect on most web placements. Yes it can be tracked and that is a good thing. But I always tried to make sure that the ad I was placing wasn’t going to piss someone off. You can track clicks to your site but you can’t track “Pissed Off Bounces” (POB). A click-through to my site may or may not generate a sale but a POB not only doesn’t generate a sale it generates an anti-sale. How do I know this? Because I’ve done it and I can’t be the only one.
The last time that I went to Seattlepi.com I clicked straight through to the sports page to read about the ‘Hawks. I got about 10 words in and the page moved, the screen “cracked” and the Allstate Mayhem guy showed up on the screen. I’ll never go out of my way to purchase Allstate insurance because of it. The kicker is that the “mayhem” series of commercials are some of my favorites on TV right now. That’s what I call a Pissed Off Bounce. When an ad is so intrusive that I angrily find the X hidden somewhere in the corner of the ad, note who the company is so that I can make a determined effort to never purchase anything from that company, and leave the offending site immediately.
In this case not only will I not purchase Allstate insurance, I’ll also avoid Seattlepi.com. I’m betting that’s not what they had in mind.
Originally published: November 28, 2011
