Pop-under ads, which come up in a window underneath the browser, create brand awareness but have low conversion rates, according to a Jupiter Media Metrix study released this week. The study contested the effectiveness of the ads being run by x10.com, which has reached 32 percent of the entire Web audience with its pop-under campaigns offering wireless cameras.
The ads have appeared at various high-traffic sites such as MSN, weather.com, NYTimes.com and Yahoo. Jupiter found that the x10 ads had a conversion rate of 4.2 percent overall. The study also found that 73 percent of x10.com visitors left within 20 seconds.
While Half.com, Real.com and Colonize.com also have successfully increased site traffic because of pop-under campaigns, Jupiter warned that Web marketers negotiating performance-based pricing for such ads could be entering losing propositions because of poor conversion rates.
