The Coalition for Better Ads has released initial Better Ads Standards for desktop and mobile web to reflect consumer advertising preferences in North American and European markets.

The initial standards are based on more than 25,000 consumers comparatively ranking 104 different ad experiences for desktop and mobile web presented to them while they read online articles.

The six desktop web ad experiences and twelve mobile web ad ad experiences that ranked lowest across a range of user experience factors, and that are most highly correlated with ad blocker usage, fell beneath a threshold of consumer acceptability.

“We are energized by how quickly this cross-industry Coalition was able to research and identify annoying advertising formats,” said Digital Content Next chief executive officer Jason Kint. “There is still much work to be done but we are out of the gate in our work to make the web less annoying for the average consumer.”

The scope and nature of this research provides insight into how consumers view different online ad experiences, highlighting what’s working well, and what needs to be rethought in order to secure more meaningful engagement,  said 4As president and chief executive officer Nancy Hill. “The consumer preferences identified in the Better Ads Standards will be useful to our members who wish to take action to improve the online experience.”

For the mobile web environment, pop-up ads, prestitial ads, ads with density greater than 30%, flashing animated ads, auto-play video ads with sound, poststitial ads with countdown, full-screen scrollover ads, and large sticky ads fell beneath the initial Better Ads Standard.

“We hope these initial standards will be a wake-up call to brands, retailers, agencies, publishers, and their technology suppliers, and that they will retire the ad formats that research proves annoy and abuse consumers,” said IAB president and chief executive officer Randall Rothenberg. “If they don’t, ad blocking will rise, advertising will decline, and the marketplace of ideas and information that supports open societies and liberal economies will slide into oblivion.”

The Coalition has a broad range of educational activities for its members and others in the industry planned, including presentations via participating trade associations, conference participation and webinars to encourage industry participants to incorporate the findings into their efforts to improve the online ad experience for consumers.

“As an industry we have a responsibility to find better ways of making great advertising and content that really engages people,” added Unilever chief marketing officer Keith Weed. “It’s in everyone’s interest; better advertising leads to a better experience for the viewer and more effective advertising for brand.

“The work of the Coalition to identify consumer preferences around ad formats will be a highly useful and insightful tool for the brand builders, advertisers and advertising agencies who are working to improve the quality of advertising for the viewer while driving effectiveness and efficiencies for the brand.”