8 Tips for Improving UX with Qt's Digital Advertising Platform

Doesn’t everyone just hate ads? You know the feeling when you’re watching a video or using an application and the irritating advert interrupts you? It’s also completely irrelevant and has nothing to do with your interests!

I have a feeling we’re in the same boat – so how is it possible to improve the experience of your users through digital advertising? Well, we’re happy to say that this blog should spark some inspiration for you to look at digital advertising from a different angle.

Here’s a few tips to help you actually improve your user experience (UX) with Digital Advertising.

1. This ad just isn’t relevant for me at all…?

One of the major pains within the digital advertising space is not displaying relevant ads to the users as and when they need them. Serving localised content to specific targeted areas or regions can hugely improve conversion rates and can help customers to take advantage of promotional or region-specific offers.

The use of language versions can also help to deliver better targeted content to the users which impacts the overall conversion goals of the advertising campaign.

Users of Qt’s Digital Advertising platform can choose their ad partners down to the specific ads, so they never need to worry about the ads being inappropriate or irrelevant. Where you want, when you want, to who you want.

Learn more about the Qt Digital Advertising platform here.

2. Ohh, I can actually click something on this!

The way we’re viewing and interacting with advertising is changing. The digital advertising space is far more dynamic than other forms of traditional advertising. Potential customers can interact with digital advertising and enjoy a better users experience than just with plain text and visuals.

Users can interact with advertising without having to leave the screen by clicking or tapping an area of the advert to, for example, reveal a surprise - this can work great when customers interact with a shopping centre kiosk, where they can click to reveal a promo code for a nearby coffee shop.

Think of something quirky to help encourage interaction with your advert and pique their interest… after all, it’s only human curiosity to click the ‘Do Not Click’ button.

3. Is that even an ad?

As mentioned, the world of advertising is changing, and bigger or louder ads isn’t necessary the best methodology for gaining more clicks. On the contrary, we’ve seen a huge increase in the delivery of ‘native-looking’ ads. You might have already seen this on popular social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and even LinkedIn with a small note to say ‘sponsored’ or ‘promoted’.

In many cases, this is a direct contributor to the performance of the ad within a certain context. Let’s take the example of a gym environment; with a well-designed ad, in a well-placed screen (embedded on a treadmill or rowing machine) to promote a relevant product e.g. sports drinks or protein snacks, facility managers can sit back and watch the sales roll in - while also benefitting both media owners and obviously, media buyers.

Another point to keep aware of is changes in delivery mechanisms with software updates, which may cause issues with visuals when your ads are being served. Make sure you get yourself an advertising platform which updates automatically whenever there is a software update to the main framework.

And hey, on that note - that’s exactly what Qt’s Digital Advertising platform can offer! The Qt Digital Advertising platform updates automatically whenever there is an update to the Qt Framework - so this doesn’t need to be handled manually, unlike with many other digital advertising or monetisation platforms. Learn more here.

4. I’ll watch an ad if I can get more out of the app!

How many times have you been playing a game and run out of lives or wanted to unlock a booster or power-up? With interstitial advertising, users often can unlock features or continue the level they were playing. Many key metrics for applications and embedded screens is often the ‘usage time’ i.e., how long can you keep the user engaged with the screen. Would you watch a 10-second ad if you could keep playing your favourite game? Yeah, we probably would too.

Find out more about Interstitial Advertising and Monetisation in a previous blog post.

5. Using new technologies as they become more mainstream.

The increased use of new technologies is becoming more and more popular within emerging markets. We’re seeing a rapid increase in the number of screens with which we interact every day, and in turn, new opportunities for providing better user experiences. A great example of this can be seen in the increasing use of electric vehicle (EV) charging points at fuelling stations, and their embedded screens. This allows media owners to access new forms of inventory (number of devices with potential for ads) while benefitting from being able to address new audience types, specifically products relevant for EV owners and even new opportunities for advertising where it traditionally wasn’t possible - in car parks, for example.

If you’re interested in what Qt can already do for the EV charging space, take a look at this recent blog post.

6. Ah, I didn’t know this was available! 

Ads can often easily become overwhelming for users, so don’t put yourself in that position. When creating advertising areas within your application or embedded device, don’t think immediately about putting the ads on every page! Make sure you think about where you place the adverts with context to the user journey and user experience overall.

Try not to spam them when they’re at the beginning of their buying journey, but instead, think more about cleverly placing ads in contextually relevant sections to help encourage and drive conversions. A very simple example of this is something that many of us have used - fast-food kiosks; you’re about to get to the checkout to pay for your food but right before, they cleverly sneak in an extra screen to add a doughnut or some sides to complement your meal. Something to consider at least …

The Qt Digital Advertising Platform provides several tools to help design and place your adverts in the right places within your application or device. Watch this quick demo about how to place ads in the Digital Advertising Platform: 

7. This ad does not look good!

Often, digital advertisers will spend a LOT of time planning, designing, and perfecting their ads, then sit back relax and wait for some customers. Sure, this could work, but isn’t your money better spent when you achieve a better conversion rates? This comes through really analysing how your ads are performing, reviewing the metrics, optimising their content, and finally testing.

Be sure to do some user testing to see how users feel about those ads. Take their feedback and develop iteratively and refresh the content. Regular reviews of digital ads will allow you to keep optimising the performance of your campaigns to hit your conversion goals and overall advertising KPIs.

Using digital advertising tools like Qt’s platform provides a huge benefit for its users - it’s already incorporated into your main development platform (Qt Framework), so there’s no need for third-party plugins, disconnected updating, or components that don’t fully integrate.

8. Pro Tip: Ad sizes are more important than you think:

When creating advertising for digital screens, stick to the pre-set sizes which are already available or standard in the industry. It gives you the best possible opportunity to serve your ads using existing ad formats. This can also help you manage your media buyers’ content and makes your life a whole lot easier.

Qt’s Digital Advertising Platform

So how can you take advantage of this new age of digital advertising? Monetise your device with Qt Digital Advertising Platform:

Turn any mobile application or embedded screen into a revenue generator with the Qt Digital Advertising Platform. Qt Digital Advertising enables you to create a new revenue stream for your product by serving ads to your interactive UI application built on the platform of your choice - mobile, desktop, or embedded software screen. All in a scalable and flexible solution easy to deploy.

Ready to trial Qt Digital Ads? Regardless of the type of Qt license you have you can use these tools.

Get access now!