• by Tyler Loechner  @mp_tyler, September 10, 2013

Adblade, a content-style ad network, commissioned a study carried out by research company Toluna which found that 82% of consumers feel that online ads are "detrimental" to their online experience at least some of the time. The report focused on questions revolving around the obtrusiveness of ads, and Adblade's CEO Ash Nashed spoke exclusively to Online Media Daily, noting the most important results.

When it comes to ads causing one to navigate away from content, an overwhelming majority (55%) of respondents said flash ad takeovers are most likely to do the trick. The ad type that is second-most likely to drive consumers away from a page are right-side banner ads (10.4%). Pre-roll (9%), top banner (8.5%), and middle-of-the-page ads (7.1%) round out the top five.

Nashed noted that he was surprised to see right-side banner ads so high in that category. He anticipated more consumers to not even notice right-side banner ads. However, just 9% of consumers never notice ads placed in that area, while just over 62% of consumers "sometimes" notice right-side banners and over 26% always notice them.

Adblade and Toluna asked the subjects to pick an ad position they felt was "least obtrusive," and nearly 50% chose at the "end of an article." Just 5.7% of respondents find ads placed in the middle of a page to be least obtrusive, while a combined 44% of respondents believe top and right-side banner ads to be the least obtrusive (22% each).

Over 66% of respondents believe middle-of-the-page ads to be the most obtrusive, compared to just 4% for end-of-article ads.

Adblade specializes in end-of-article ad placements, so those particular results play into their hands. However, Nashed claimed that Adblade has seen two to three times the click rate on ads placed at the end of an article as opposed to similar ads run on right-side banners. "Picture your own habits," he said. "You've read the last sentence of an article, and now you're finding engaging content right below it."

There were 350 respondents to the survey from Toluna's pool of 500,000 verified registrants. The results from the survey were weighted to accurately reflect the American census as a whole.