How to shoot yourself in the foot

How to shoot yourself in the foot

March 8, 2007 by Vinny Lingham

I just went to check our Ananzi (South African Search Engine / Portal with about 5% search market share, as opposed to Google.co.za with 85%) and they were running their regular polls.  Ananzi makes their money out of advertising and sponsorships (along with a bit of affiliate banners, here and there).  I was amazed to see their latest poll:

“Do you click on our Pop-ups Adverts?”

A couple of points:

  • Firstly, South Africa, as well as just about everyone else, HATES popups. It’s sooo Web 1.0!
  • They’re obviously charging for the popups on a CPM, otherwise they wouldn’t have to ask the question.  The fact that advertisers in South Africa are stupid enough to pay CPM on Pop-ups, is scary.  Arguably, this is not even branding, but irritation media.
  • If they are charging on a CPM, based on the outcome of the poll, they’re over-charging their advertisers by double and would probably be liable for a big refund to them (if I was an advertiser, I would go nuts to hear these stats).

It saddens me sometimes to see how the rest of world have just not caught up with the trends and business knowledge gained in the US & European markets.  It’s only a matter of time though and at some stage, we can all hope that the world becomes geographically agnostic in terms of value delivery, thanks to the Internet and the knowledge base that resides within it.

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This entry was posted on March 8, 2007 at 8:59 am and is filed under: General

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Viewing 9 Comments

    • ^
    • v
    Well spotted Vinny. I HATE pop-ups and pop-unders. Ananzi recently upgraded their look and feel as well as their search engine to. I personally think they didn't do much upgrading. A lot of sites are still not indexed and their look and feel changes nothing for me. 24.com and M-Web seem to both be using the same kind of search technique as their results are almost identical and are also becoming very accurate. Ananzi needs to step up or step down.
    • ^
    • v
    I hope Ananzi is using this poll to determine if they will soon scrap all their pop-ups & -unders. I agree with Vinny that pop-ups & -unders really work these days, as there is solid evidence that search has long been dominating in the space of online advertising - Google is an excellent example.
    • ^
    • v
    Yip. promotional pop ups are are a major irritation and can really upset the credibility of your website/ organisation. But the real problem with a pop up is the "promotion" in it and not the actual mechanism itself. We have created pop ups for our clients before but not for promotional purposes. We have used it as a user aid when we tested pages and had found users dropping off in certain points. Basically, when the problem with the conversion process is found, the pop up can be used to ask an intuitive question with the solution already at hand. (eg. having trouble finding your dream vacation? Use our quick form to have a consultant call you back within 2 hours) The pop up contains the form and is generated when the user leaves/closes the specified page. These pop ups are different because they offer value to the user. Perhaps advertisers can look to place their ads in "intuitive" pop ups which actually help users? I would imagine impressions would be alot less but impact could be improved as user is likely to be less irritated and view the ad in a more receptive state of mind. If you are a really smart advertiser, you could create relevance by co-ordinating your communication with the message/ intuition the pop up contains.
    • ^
    • v
    if one hits the way back machine and you have a look at Excite, Altavista, Infoseek e.t.c in 98, they were comparable with what Ananzi is now. Loads of cluttered irritational advertising as they struggled to make ends meet.

    In real terms, none of the above are going concerns anymore. The problem for Ananzi is they need a point of difference. As a search portal, this should be relevancy but the cost of competing is prohibitive.

    Also - I stand to be corrected but the majority of their advertising is sold at a fixed fee basis and is not inventory based. Anyone still doing this in the search space doesnt have the impression volumes or possibly doesnt believe in their product
    • ^
    • v
    Firstly, comparing Ananzi to Google is like comparing apples with oranges. Secondly, Ananzi has never purposefully positioned itself to be competition to Google.com, and the fact that Google.co.za is here means that as a fellow player in the South African internet environment Ananzi graciously welcomes more players to the field. More players only makes you want to up your game, not just survive. Besides, the Google/Ananzi comparison is getting a bit old and is a little skewed. I wonder where these stats come from... (Alexa maybe? If so, the that's an idea for our next poll).

    The poll on Ananzi provides relevant and important market information for our user demographic, and the case of the pop up and pop unders is no different. Ananzi agrees that pop ups are not the most ideal advertisments, but there is no denying that it gets the attention of the user (whether good or bad), sometimes more so than banners which are embedded into a site. However, as more and more people are making use of pop up blockers, Ananzi is proactively trying to determine whether or not this form of online advertising is viable. These ads are capped to a frequency of 3 per user, and if that is not good enough, then make use of your pop up blocker. So yes, Ananzi is evaluating pop ups, hence the poll.
    • ^
    • v
    Hi Tuchinca

    Thanks for your comments. I do understand that the market perceives Ananzi to compete with Google, but in reality, Yahoo is more of a competitor, should they enter the local market.

    What causes confusion though, is articles such as this: http://www.itweb.co.za/sections/internet/2007/0...

    Where the headline news is "Ananzi not scared of Google"

    Also, given the response rates from users, I would question whether advertisers want to attract users by irritating them in order to attract their attention - just a thought!
    • ^
    • v
    Hi Vinny

    Thanks for recognising the fact that Ananzi is more comparable to the Yahoo! model. However, your article, together with numerous others, insists on drawing the Ananzi/Google comparison. Ananzi recognises what the perception is, and responds accordingly, because as we all know, perception is reality unfortunately. Hence the Itweb article.

    Whether it be Yahoo or Google, it doesn't really matter because Ananzi cannot compare to the millions that these guys invest in search technology - nor does it want to. Having said that, rather compare Ananzi to local engines such as Jonga, Funnel and Grabble...it would be interesting to see what a system such as Alexa shows.
    • ^
    • v
    Agreed - the other search engines locally are more comparable. One caveat though is that Alexa's statistics are not accurate to a large degree - I wouldn't place too much emphasis on it. I suggest that more of the local engines join the OPA, in order to get a better idea of where you all sit.
    • ^
    • v
    Hi Vinny and Tuchinca,

    I understand that a comparison with google is unfair and not realistic. I also believe though that there are some major opportunities for a local search engine to provide unique and relevant content and search results. Ananzi has some advantages over other local engines being established as it has been around for awhile and for a time, provided excellent results (in the local context). We had 1st hand insight into this when a local hotel group that we managed received a fair amount of traffic from your site.

    My concern though (from what I can tell), is that Ananzi needs a point of difference and the sooner you find it the better - In my opinion, you dont have it at the moment. With other big local media groups looking at investing in search, its not about whose got the money, makes the most noise, its about who has the soundest strategy and finds a niche (think local and personlized).

    I also think that the search category is in its infancy and there will be huge opportunities for all of us. I dont see Google as genius quite yet

    On Alexa, the less said the better I think for all our sakes.

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Vinny Lingham is an International Award winning Entrepreneur & Search Engine Marketer. He is currently CEO of Synthasite, a Web 2.0 Startup.

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