Why are popups still being used today?

In my experience it doesn’t work for people actually wanting to sell something. I don’t know why marketing folks keep doing it, but hopefully they’re measuring the ROI at least and seeing that it pisses off most users. Then again, most sites don’t actually care because they get their money from the ad traffic.

I read on article on this once (don't remember where) and it showed that the popups got very few clicks but they did increase traffic/brand awareness/etc by essentially subliminal means. They want you to just close it without consideration just to plant their name in your head so when you are shopping for a product service they offer you recognize their name without knowing why you recognize the name. If you recognize a brand you are more likely to consider what they have to offer more seriously than a brand you have never heard of, especially when the recognition is a vague recollection you can't place, it makes it feel more important.

The numbers in the article were fairly clear, despite abysmal clicks they would see results.

1) They probably have some data that indicates that this tactic generally works for them. There's a ton of shitty businesses and landing pages that use random dumb popups that make money: not Facebook or Google money, but some solid income.

2) If I had to guess, I'd bet that tactic works well on a less experienced and technically unsophisticated crowd. You might not be the target audience for some dumb popup, but a less experienced user who sees some flashy warning message might just take the bait.

I always hated popups and the thought is: I need to get out of here immediately. Been running a website for 10 years with some type of ads and I ran ads for a little while, only to find them really annoying and could imagine how my visitors felt.