Why Digital Advertising is the Last One to the Party

wsj.com

Digital ads are pedestrian, ineffective and lack good user experience

We in the digital advertising space like to think of our slice of the industry as forward-thinking, ahead-of-the-curve and superior to “traditional” advertising. We’ll even spout things like, “digital is no longer a consideration – 

everything is digital.”

OK, great, only every day, digital advertising fails to connect with consumers and falls further behind.

The reason is simple: user experience, or in digital parlance, UX.

Uber applied the concept of UX to the experience of getting a cab, so much so that the company name has indeed become a verb. We now uber to dinner and uber the last few miles home after a cross-country flight. Amazon and Zappos are famously UX-focused sites that removed all the pain around online purchasing, from browsing to payment, all the way through to returns.

Of course, Google was one of the UX trailblazers, streamlining search with the (then) shockingly simple search box. They grew their business into where they are today, primarily because UX played a large role when they monetized search with their paid search product. Google’s early ad products were great experiences for users and its continued focus on ad experience has fueled most of their growth to date.

However, I cannot say the same for the $60 billion-plus digital advertising industry. Ads are pedestrian and ineffective. Essentially, digital ads suck. In the same way political pundits blame the rise of Donald Trump on Fox News and infighting within the GOP, I blame the rise of ad blockers (and viewability and ad fraud to some extent) not just on pure greed and “bad actors,” but on the industry’s overall lack of good UX. Period. We missed the boat.

Well, that’s not 100% accurate. While the digital industry forges ahead to record spending levels and will for many years to come, we do have a chance to right the ship. Some will continue to focus on the symptoms of the problem – ad blocking, viewability and fraud – but smart marketers will see the bigger picture, that the efficacy of digital ad campaigns must be the goal and UX is certainly a good place to start.

All of us who work in digital advertising have a massive opportunity. If we learn from Uber and other industries that have embraced UX as a critical component, we’ll ensure that the consumer isn’t left out of the equation and doesn’t simply walk away. The lesson is clear: the Internet gives consumers unprecedented choice. Great user experience is paramount to drive growth when people have choice on what products and services they adopt.

Midway through 2015, I sat down with a few product managers at a large and innovative media company. We shared thoughts on the industry and opportunities for developing better ad products. At the end of the meeting, one of the product managers said that she’d never before had a conversation about the UX of an ad and how it was refreshing to do so. That conversation stuck with me since then.

We in digital advertising certainly face a number of significant challenges in 2016, but I’m excited to hear more people begin to talk about user experience. It will be central to solving many of those issues, as well as key to unlocking runaway growth. As an industry we need to reframe the view that digital ads have to feel like a tax or necessary pain for users. Consider instead that the prize will be huge for those who get it right. Just look at what solving for UX has done for Uber, Amazon, and Google. For the moment, we still have a bit of time to get to the party before it’s too late.