Zynga’s In-Game Advertising Is So Bad, It Makes MySpace Look Pretty.

Posted on September 12, 2011 by Arnie Gullov-Singh — No Comments ↓

As a huge fan of Zynga’s Scrabble-like game Words With Friends, I often find myself playing it on Facebook, as well as on the iPhone.

The iPhone app is great. Its simple, fast and for $1.99 I was happy to pay for the ad-free version.

By contrast, the Facebook app is horrendous.

Not only are the ads irrelevant, they are unbelievably annoying too – After EVERY SINGLE move you get not one but TWO interstitial popups.

The first is a desperate attempt to get you to spam your friends’ newsfeeds on behalf of the game. The second is a completely untargeted banner ad. In my case, an ad for women’s apparel at GAP (no I am not a secret cross-dresser).

And this is just one of the SIX ad units on the page. Even MySpace never pushed it this far.

 

Posted in Facebook, Targeting