Summary: Both pop up and pop under adverts are relatively simple to use and do not affect the page, but neither of them are particularly effective sources of monetisation.
A Pop up advert is an advert which pops up in a separate window when a web page is accessed. As the page is loaded in the browser, a script is activated which causes a new window to “pop up” over the top of the existing one. A pop under advert works on the same principle, except the new window will be opened and the original window will then be selected over the top of it, hence the advert will ‘pop under’ the existing window. Pop up advertising is fairly ubiquitous, and is an easy way to monetise pages without placing adverts on the page itself. Instead, when the page is loaded, the advert appears and the visitor is effectively forced to see it, like a sponsor promotion on TV right before a sports game. The visitor can then choose to either click on the advert, or dismiss it by closing the window. However, pop up advertising has become so ubiquitous that it is now largely viewed as a nuisance, and effectively as a form of spam. As such, many browsers now contain pop up blockers, which specifically stop the pop up scripts from running and the advertising window appearing, unless the user gives their explicit consent. As few users do this, users with these blockers running will never see a pop up advert, and hence the site owner will never make any money.
As a result of this, pop up advertising has largely been replaced by pop under advertising. These adverts are seen as less annoying, as they appear below the existing browser window, and hence do not interrupt the user experience. Instead, they function somewhat similar to the end credits at a movie: when the user has finished their session and closed their initial window, the pop under window will then appear and the advert can be read. This makes them less obtrusive, and thus can lead to a more favourable user response. However, it is still highly likely that the user will simply close the window and not view the advert at all, hence not making the site owner any money.
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