[User Research] From the perspective of users' sense of control, should ads support skipping?

What is the user's sense of control? How to understand the click-to-skip ad settings in video ads from this perspective? In what other product designs can the user's sense of control be leveraged?

Should ads support skipping?

• The user said: "It must be supported, otherwise I won't use it";
• The advertiser said: "I can't support it, otherwise I won't advertise on your platform";
• The platform said: "I...";
• The advertising product manager said: "It can be supported, but we will consider the timing and method of skipping, and try to balance the interests of multiple parties."

then:

• There is a 30-second YouTube ad, which can be skipped after 5 seconds;
• There is also a 15-second advertisement of Tencent Sports, which can be skipped after 5 seconds;
• With the 3-second advertisements when various Apps are started, they can be skipped at any time;
• There is even Tencent Video, even for VIP users, there will still be a 15-second "recommended advertisement", and "VIP" can skip it at any time.

How does the advertising product manager find a balance between the interests of users and advertisers?

Take Tencent Sports as an example:

A 15-second advertisement, users can choose to close it after 5 seconds and directly consume the content.

There are two user psychology involved here: certainty and a sense of control .

Certainty is obvious, that is, the advertisement will end after 15 seconds, which is predictable and certain for users.

Today we will focus on the sense of control.

1. What is a sense of control?

For example, you have an appointment with a friend to have dinner, you go to the restaurant first, send him a WeChat message asking: "Where have you been?", and reply: "Soon".

Half an hour later, he still hadn't arrived. I asked him again, and I got the same two words: "immediately." After half an hour, he still didn't arrive.

How do you feel then? anger? angry? Or just scold him on WeChat and go home?

If you ask him on WeChat, his reply is: "There is a traffic jam today, and I expect to arrive in another hour."

I believe you will not be as angry as above.

why?

Because you are sure that he can come, you are also sure that his late arrival is an objective factor, and you are more sure that he is about 1 hour late.

After you have a definite result, you will have a sense of control over "eating".

For example, if waiting for 1 hour is too long, why not make an appointment another day?

Or if you are waiting, just go to the mall for an hour before your friend arrives, or find a coffee shop, drink coffee, and wait patiently while watching a hot drama.

This is the sense of control.

That is: people have a predictable result for a certain event (or person), and they are in a state of control over the result and subsequent development of this event.

Let's analyze through the case of Tencent sports advertising, how is the sense of control used?

Before that, let me talk about why the skippable duration is 5 seconds instead of 3 seconds, 2 seconds, or 10 seconds?

Two reasons:

1. It is necessary to leave about 1 second for users to adapt and give up at the beginning and end;
2. Ensure that users do not divert their attention because of too long time.

If there is no closing after 5 seconds, the user must watch a 15-second advertisement if he wants to consume content; for him, the only control left is: either close or wait for 15 seconds.

Obviously, both of these are not what it wants.

If it can be closed after 5 seconds, would the advertiser be willing? Isn't this a waste of 10 seconds of advertising time?

willing.

Or two reasons:

1. 5 seconds guarantees the true viewing rate of the advertisement (the time is very short, and the attention will not be diverted), that is, at least the 5 seconds of the advertisement time have achieved the purpose;
2. If the user does not choose to close and continues to watch for 10 seconds, then he is likely to be a potential user of the product.

Moreover, most of the current platforms have already paid on demand, that is, they must pay for the first 5 seconds, and only charge for the part of users who have not skipped the next 10 seconds.

In this way, the advertising product manager gives users and advertisers a sense of control, and makes a "delicate" connection and balance between user experience and commercial interests.

The conclusion comes naturally. Ads can support skipping, but you may have to pay attention to the timing and mechanism of skipping .

In addition to the application of advertising products, can the sense of control be used in other ways?

1. If you are an educator

Consider offering the following services to increase user satisfaction and revenue by handing control back to parents or students:

• Support users who are not satisfied with the course registration, and can refund at any time;
• Support users to try it for free, if you are not satisfied, you can not sign up for the class;
• Support the "dual-teacher" model, so that students can have someone to answer their questions at any time before and after class.

2. If you are a product manager

In addition to the ad design mentioned above, if you want to give users a sense of control, you may also need to pay attention to the following designs:

• After the user submits the appointment form, the user must be allowed to cancel the appointment;
• After the user places an order, the user must be allowed to cancel the order;
• After the user binds the account, it must be allowed to unbind the account;
• After the user recharges, he must be allowed to withdraw cash at any time;
• After the user finishes watching the video, it takes 3 seconds to count down the "advertisement" (such as sharing, subscription, etc.) before entering the next one, and the user must be allowed to switch directly;
• The contents posted by users (such as articles, comments, videos, messages, etc.) must be allowed to be deleted or withdrawn;
• When users write articles, edit videos, etc., in addition to automatic saving, users must be allowed to actively save;
• When designing an advertisement for the startup image of the App, there must be a "Skip" button; when the network is abnormal or the data is abnormal, there must be a "Retry" and "Back" button;
• When the service is abnormal (such as being unable to enter the classroom during the class, or the live broadcast is abnormal during the class), in addition to "retry" and "return", you must complain to the user or seek help.

3. If you are a team manager

For the work deployment of subordinates, we must reject the "command style" and avoid trivial intervention;

For example, when asking subordinates to formulate work plans, do not directly say that you should do 1, 2, and 3, but at most give the overall goal of a department, and let them set their own work plans and key steps, and give them enough trust to execute .

Of course, you can do a check on key nodes and steps.