Pop-up
Pop-up Ads · experience 07 of 23
An ad that appears over the page after it starts loading and covers the text. It can cover just a piece of the screen or the whole screen.
Understand it in 1 minute
On mobile, the pop-up is the same type of interstitial ad as on desktop: it jumps onto the screen and covers the main content of the page. It appears after the content starts loading. The person opened the post, the text began to appear and, suddenly, an ad box shows up on top. The Coalition for Better Ads says the pop-up is among the most cited annoyances for people who visit a site.
Size makes no difference. According to the Coalition, the pop-up can take up just part of the screen or the whole screen. The mobile tests included the pop-up with a countdown and the pop-up without a countdown, the latter in two different designs. So, with or without a clock, if the ad jumps onto the screen and covers the main content, it falls under this rule. It is like someone putting a hand in front of your phone while you read.
To understand the limit, it helps to remember what the Coalition calls an ad: promotional content shown because of a paid deal with a third party. There are also cases that the Coalition set aside and that, for now, are not covered by the pop-up rule, on both desktop and mobile. These are exit pop-ups, which appear after the person has stopped interacting: when they start to leave the page (without the ad getting in the way of leaving), when they stay idle for more than 30 seconds on a page without video, when they reach the end of the first article, or when they deliberately go to another tab and come back. Also left out, for now, is an ad inside an image, video or game that takes up 30% or less of that content.
Allowed
- An ad between paragraphs that scrolls with the text and does not jump over it.
- A cookie notice or sign-up box from the site itself: by the Coalition's definition, it is not an ad, because it is not promotional content paid for by a third party.
- An exit pop-up that appears when the person starts to leave the page, without getting in the way of leaving (outside the rule for now).
- A pop-up that appears when the person returns to the page from another tab (outside the rule for now).
- An ad inside an image, video or game that takes up 30% or less of that content (outside the rule for now).
Not allowed
- An ad box that jumps onto the screen and covers all of it right after the post starts loading.
- An ad that jumps onto the screen and covers only the bottom part, over the text.
- An ad pop-up with a countdown over the text.
- An ad pop-up with no countdown that covers the main text.
- An ad pop-up that appears when the person scrolls the text and covers the content.
In practice
Imagine a jobs site open on a phone. The job the person was looking for starts to appear and, right after, a box jumps up with an ad for a course paid for by an advertiser, covering the job listing. This is a pop-up: it appeared after the content started loading and covered the main content. If the same ad sat between the paragraphs of the listing, without jumping over it, it would not be a pop-up.
Why it's annoying
On mobile, the layer takes up almost the whole screen and the close button is small and hard to tap.
How to fix
- Turn off automatic pop-ups on mobile.
- Use an interstitial between pages with a large close button.
- Show required notices, such as the cookie notice, in a bar, not full screen.
In ConsentMode
Timeline of layers on mobile (time, % of screen, text, and buttons), with a screenshot.
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