Not Just Bubbles: In Text Ads without Bubbles

Where did the Bubble Go?

When defining in-text ads, the little tooltip that opens upon a mouse hover nicknamed “bubble” was a fundamental part of it. But, as it usually happens with definitions, there are exceptions. Some advertising methods that insert ads dynamically within existing online content do so without the so called bubble, or with variations of it.

Generally speaking, I find the bubbles to be a crucial part of the success of in text advertising. The ability of the users to view the ad before clicking it guarantees the double permission process – when hovering with the mouse, users first ask for some more information about the highlighted term (with the double underline), and then when they click they actually approve that they want to see more of the related ad shown within the bubble. Such genuine interest in advertised content generates higher conversion rates for the advertisers and in the long run yields higher revenues to the website publisher. Without this preview, more clicks will be by mistake, bounce rates will be higher and overall results for both advertisers and publishers will diminish. And yet, such bubble-less in text ads do exist, so they’re worth understanding.

Link Only In Text Ads

Some providers offer website publishers to integrate what seems like in text ads that do not react to mouse hovers. Upon a click such ads lead to the advertiser’s landing page without a bubble or other form of preview. In most cases, such providers also allow the configuration of the advertising links to confusingly appear exactly like regular hyperlinks.

The obvious outcome of these link-only in text ads is unaware clicks. Visitors to sites with such ads can’t differentiate regular or editorial links from the paid for links. The unavoidable result is that users get confused. They also get angry and this anger is directed at both the website and the advertiser.

So why would anyone integrate such ads? From the publisher’s point of view, misleading visitors makes sense only for websites that don’t view their visitors as anything else than onetime short term revenue opportunities. Websites that don’t look for returning visitors, like AdSense traps or websites that deal with traffic arbitrage, simply want clicks for immediate revenues, not much more. Some get-rich-quick programs that promote such websites may be candidates for this form of advertising.

But with this understanding, why would advertisers want to work with them? Well, there are many types of advertisers that look for volume with no focus on quality. Again, traffic arbitrage sometimes requires high volumes of clicks, some fraudulent activities may require disguising robot clicks among genuine clicks, and you can think of other examples, but they will all surely fall under dubious fields of online activity. As you can see, I personally don’t like it when people are cheated or misled into clicking and therefore, I don’t like link-only in text ads.

Animated and Interactive Tooltips

The nicer version of bubble-less in text ads is when the regular bubble is replaced by another form of creative preview. Instead of placing the ad within a bubble like tooltip, some in text ads use other formats that on the one hand generate the double permission process, but on the other hand attract much more attention. One example is 3D ads that pop upon a hover. Another example is rather big bubbles that include interactive content.

While such creative bubble replacements could prove to be very efficient, they do have a down side in the form of noise. One of the nicest advantages of in text ads is that they are subtle, and while they do hook themselves on actual content, they don’t overdo this with jumping animation. This is the secret that helped pave the route of in text ads into reputable websites. Adding interactive or large animated bubbles could prove to be efficient, but it changes the balance of content and ads, so it may not be suitable for all kinds of websites.

Added Text Link Ads and Google Text Link Ad Units

The last form of bubble-less in text ads – at least for the time being – comes in the form of added links. This method of advertising steps even further away from in text advertising since it does not highlight existing content, but instead it inserts additional content within the text. This can be done either by configuring text ad units within the content, where ads are later added dynamically, or even by letting a script push the content to add textual ad units. Then, these text links can perform as regular in text ads with hovers and bubbles, or as link-only text ads with no preview.

The most famous example is Google AdSense’s Text Link ad units, where publishers can add a line of text links with contextually related terms that link to pages full of paid for ads. Many website publishers integrate these ad units just above content to appear a little like a navigation bar, which clearly confuses visitors. Others add these text link ad units between paragraphs to appear as part of the text. One should question Google’s approval of these ads which stand in contradiction to Google’s general positive approach to online advertising. My guess is that with time, Google will back away from this format or at least restrict the integration to locations which will not be confusing.

Added text link ads could be legitimate and serve visitors with added value while creating a positive interaction opportunity for advertisers only when they are clearly distinct from the content. To Google’s benefit it should be said that all text link ad units are preceded by a small headline describing them as ads. As with other issues related to contextual advertising, the clearer the distinction between editorial content and ads, the better are the long term results for all sides involved. So, if you do choose to use bubble-less in text ads, do keep distinction in mind.