Putting pop ups in perspective.

In the concluding remarks of a September 23rd article in MediaPost, "Pop-ups: Clickthroughs Outweigh Frustration,"

Pop-ad ads make up just 3.5% of all US online ads in Q4 2002, based on impressions, according to PricewaterhouseCoopers' latest numbers. That number, however, is a near-doubling of the previous year's figure, according to Nielsen//NetRatings, which also says that publishers served 13.4 billion pop-up ads in Q1 2003 (not counting house ads), a 24% increase from the previous quarter.

Moreover, a study from Unicast and Dynamic Logic found that a whopping 78% think pop-up, pop-under, and floating ads are annoying. Further research sponsored by Overture found that when US Internet users could choose only one online advertising issue that most concerned them, 35% cited pop ups. And most alarmingly, pop-ups lead all ad forms in levels of annoyance and distrust-97% feel "furious" or "angry" with pop-up ads that appear without warning, reports PlanetFesdback.

Why are pop-ups still popping? In a word: clickthroughs. A recent survey by Advertising.com says clickthroughs on pop-ups are nearly 13% higher than on banners (conversions are 14% higher) and with numbers like that, advertisers are willing to annoy.