• by Ben Frederick , Staff Writer @mp_benfred, February 4, 2016

According to a survey from mobile location firm Retale, 60% of clicks on mobile banner ads are mistakes. Users most often encounter banner ads when checking the news (65%), using social media (50%), playing games (47%), watching videos (45%) and listening to music (45%).

Consumers' fat fingers have been a perennial problem for mobile advertisers. It’s a combination of the small amount of real estate available to advertisers on any given mobile device as well as fingers slipping, or a hard-to-press close button.

After accidentally clicking an ad, most respondents said they felt annoyed (68%), frustrated (45%), or angry (22%).

“Mobile display spend will hit $18 billion this year,” stated Pat Dermody, president of Retale. “Given the investment and with the majority of mobile banner clicks done accidentally, brands, marketers and agencies should reconsider their mobile strategies.”

Regardless of how much users hate mobile banner ads, however, the industry does turn a profit.

Speaking as a consumer, the only time I’ve ever noticed a banner ad was when I accidentally clicked on one. And I’ve never been pleased to find one eating up my screen space.

Sixty-six percent of users who encountered a mobile banner ad said they found the ads themselves to be useless or not very useful. Only 29% said they would be likely to check out the company, product or service offered by the ad after clicking on it.

Maybe the idea of mobile banner ads is itself an accident? Then these numbers would start to make sense.