The Long Goodbye to Flash

Key Takeaways:

Flash Is Even Deader Than Before

In the ongoing landslide of bad news for Flash, Google just announced that its insanely popular web browser Chrome will now pause all Flash ads by default.

We mentioned previously that 98.6% of all Flash ads default to static images anyway; this move from Google will take that failure rate up to 100% for Chrome users.

Why Did Google Do This?

Simple: to improve the overall web browsing experience.

You see, Flash files are bulky, and they slow everything down, including web page loading times. Slowness, as everyone knows, is bad. Real bad.

Google’s core vision is to deliver a good web experience. Flash ads delivers increasingly poorer experiences; in fact, they detract from otherwise quick and pleasant web pages. It makes sense for Google to try and improve the speed of the Chrome experience by automatically pausing those Flash ads.

Are They Still Functional?

Technically, those Flash ads may still play if they don’t default to the static images, but users will have to willingly and actively click on them to play the ads.

Good luck getting users to do that!

This roll out may take a little longer for other browsers, so those of you that are still married to and love Flash, there may be a little lifespan left – but it probably won’t be very long.

Okay, So What Now?

Flash is dead, and it keeps getting deader.

The solution for advertisers is HTML5.

As we mentioned before, advertisers who are ahead of the curve have already converted Flash ads to HTML5 and are ordering new ads only in HTML5.

HTML5 is rich media, like Flash, only better integrated with web browser language. This means faster load times and less static image defaulting.

It also means:

• Your fluid, moving message will display in all its fully-animated glory.
• You can reach customers on mobile devices with no issues.
• Your brand won’t get lost in the noise.

Well-designed HTML5 Ads have been receiving a higher click-through rate – this is really good. It means more clicks to your website, which is the point!

We recommend making the move to HTML5 Banner Ads right now for all advertisers. If you’re a small or medium business, most of your direct competitors probably don’t know what’s going on yet, and any edge is a great edge.

How To Upgrade To HTML5 Ads

We make it easy, really easy. Custom Creatives can create new HTML5 ads of any size, and we can convert old Flash ads into HTML5.

Some advertisers are seeing default ad rates drop by as much as 75% since switching to HTML5. What’s more, they are seeing interactions with their ads increase by more than 14%.

What could improvements like this do for your business?

The world is leaving Flash behind – don’t get left behind with it!

Author: Rahul Alim

Custom Creatives was established to serve as your full-service one-stop Digital Marketing Company, offering graphic design, web design and web development agency, catering to businesses of all sizes. Custom Creatives has designed and deployed over 100,000 banner ads, as well as thousands of websites and landing pages and print collateral for small businesses and large international corporations. Providing exceptional quality services and products with a high return on investment is at the heart of everything we do.