Here's the Catch-22: Online publishers rely on advertising for revenue. Online advertisers rely on research to justify spending. However, publishers resist efficient market research efforts out of fear of detracting from the "user experience" and chasing away users thus threatening the revenue that such publishers can generate from advertising.

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For many online publishers and Web site administrators, "user experience" is the guiding principle in the day to day administration and operation of Web properties. This is more than understandable considering that online property can be the single most valuable asset to any Web-based business or publisher. Many publishers and Web site administrators look less than enthusiastically on "pop-up" windows of any kind for just this reason. These windows can command a very high CPM (cost per one-thousand impressions) because of their conspicuous nature. The time that these windows take to load and the distraction they provide can raise red flags for any online publisher.

The question that publishers should be asking themselves with regards to letting advertisers conduct research on their sites is: "What are the benefits and costs of supporting pop-up window research on my sites, and how do I know which research companies to trust?"

The question researchers must be prepared to answer is: "How can you minimize any negative effect on the user experience and optimize the benefit to the publishing community as well as the advertiser?"

The Hypothesis: Market Research Delivers Proof of ROI And Drives Ad Dollars To Web Publishers.

• Market research proves campaign effectiveness by measuring buying behavior and brand loyalty.
• Market research provides large brand advertisers with their first ever opportunity to measure ROI and the long-term impact of advertising online. As a result, market research is moving advertising dollars currently spent on traditional media online.
• Market research is accepted across the advertising industry. Advertisers expect and need research to justify their spending.
• Brand advertisers are spending significant media dollars to do studies and are spending their dollars on sites that support appropriate market research.
• There is already an accepted precedent for collecting data via banner ads. Pop-up windows are simply another format of advertising and generate high CPMs for publishers.

The Precautions: Market Research Firms Must Be Committed To Protecting A Site's Interests.

• Most market research companies can now offer survey delivery that requires no technical implementation on the part of the Web publisher. Surveys can be delivered by an ad server utilizing existing ad tags.
• Because of high response rates generated by pop-up windows, the inventory required is relatively small. A typical creative test involves only around 6,000-10,000 impressions across an entire network or category to get a sound sample size of 500-1,000 complete responses.
• Market research companies and their clients must be willing to pay the high CPM for such prominent exposure.
• Online research companies must obey the rules of good market research practices including designing logical surveys of an acceptable length; providing incentives, offering a quick way to opt-out; keeping personal information confidential if requested; and not over-burdening people who decline with additional invitations (email spam is a typically offensive recruiting technique).
• Data must be kept confidential. Employees of the publishing community must agree not to have access to the results of advertising research in order to keep the results objective and assuage the fears of advertisers that this data will be used against them.

The Bottom-line: Surveying Has Minimal Effect On User Experience.

• The pop-up survey window is easy to close and still leaves users at their intended destination. All survey research is "opt-out."
• Web users generally do not find pop-ups annoying. Industry-wide market research shows less than half of 1% of users mind pop-ups enough to complain. There will always be a couple of users who will send a nasty email to the publisher complaining about the surveys. These need to be anticipated by all parties and a thoughtful timely response should be provided.
• Quite often the consumer will actually enjoy the survey experience and volunteer additional information and even express gratitude for the opportunity to share their opinion.
• "Pop-up" windows are providing substantial benefits over banner recruitment in terms of response rates for online surveys and can make online market research inexpensive, accurate, and actionable. Based on DoubleClick's experience, completion rates for surveys presented in "pop-up" windows can vary according to content and audience but typically run from 5%-15%. Typical banner recruiting may yield only a fraction of a percent. The benefit of this higher response rate is profound when the increased reliability of the resulting data and lower inventory costs is taken into account.