Google removes the interstitial mobile app ads completely for a better user

Google doesn’t think so after doing a case study on the subject. The main aim of mobile computing is to provide speed and convenience but it failed to do that once the interstitials appeared.

Tl;dr: people on mobile don’t dig interruptions, yo!

Once Google removed the app interstitial, they noticed an increase in traffic, not surprising since they weren’t losing 69% of visits to abandonment after being presented with the interstitial.

9% of the visits to our interstitial page resulted in the “Get App” button being pressed. Or might have never followed through and downloaded it. So it’s a very diluted signal of success, at best. Based on the results of its experiment, the Google+ team killed full-screen ads for its mobile app entirely, and the company hopes that other developers might follow suit. Following this rage, Google decided to relook at its approach towards interstitial ads for its own Google+. These users neither went to the app store nor continued to our mobile website.

Well, those commercial pop-ups which constantly appear anywhere and anytime are interstitial apps, meaning web pages displayed before or after an expected content page.

They did a test to find out whether Google+ should get rid of them completely. Does that still mean that you should have a landing page anytime a mobile browser hits your site to suggest downloading the app? G+ iOS native app installs only experienced a 2% drop. And – quelle surprise – this more softly, softly approach performed better, with Google noting that 1-day active users to the Google+ website increased by 17 per cent.

Even though Microsoft won’t say if it plans to end its 12-year practice of providing security patches on the same day…

Google’s action will, however, annoy some of the site owners who have invested money and time developing the app. So it’s pure, teeth-grinding time-wasting, every time I have to log back in. It also shows Google is looking for ways to reduce the “friction”, as it puts it, of mobile ads, the report added.

When you want to check-up on something, you want to do it quick because your battery life is fading and you need that piece of information right there, right then and right away.