I’d say the single most annoying part of my mobile experience is when I accidentally click on a strategically placed ad. Most of the time, ads are placed in close proximity to where a user needs to touch in order to scroll or advance — not to mention there’s little screen real estate to begin with. Thankfully, and surprisingly, Google has been working on making accidental clicks a thing of the past.
Today, Google has announced it will be implementing confirmed clicks into all in-app image ad banners on smartphones. You may recall Google implementing a similar solution last year in regards to text ad banners. From now on, if you accidentally click on the outer edge of an ad banner, it will bring up a prompt which you will then have to click on to be taken to that particular ad site.
This is beyond fantastic for users and will undoubtedly improve the mobile experience. Accidental ad clicks take a user away from whatever content it was they were enjoying, and some times it’s a pain to get back.
If only all ads had a confirmation system such as this, I’d be ecstatic. I believe it’s a happy medium for those who find ads intrusive but want to respect a site’s means of revenue. This way they don’t have to turn to something drastic like an ad-blocker to enjoy their favorite sites. Kudos Google, keep it up.
Source: Google Mobile Ads Blog
