American Express is Placing Ads on my Billing Page
I was not expecting to see this. An interruption marketing piece. An advertisement on a private web page behind a secure login where I go to review and “pay” my American Express bill (see screenshot below)?
Wow. Does anyone else find this a bit weird? Apparently the marketing executives at American Express have missed the Seth Godin classic, “Permission Marketing”.
I remember the time when online advertising was considered a last resort for a company to make money off a web page. Now it looks like that if there’s a web page that someone will view, and the company can make money from the presentation of pages, it’s acceptable to pocket the money.
Perhaps it was a “budget” meeting where someone said, “Hey, I know how we can make an expense into a revenue model: get people to convert from paper billing and serve up online ads where we can make money.”
Tacky.
Comments
2 Responses to “American Express is Placing Ads on my Billing Page”
If you think about it though, I with other paper credit card bills, I get ads there too. My Amazon card always had ads in it. My Costco (American Express) card has ads everytime.
Hi Brad — your private bill page may be private, but it is, of course, owned and operated by American Express.
This sort of marketing is normal and appears on every credit-card page I access, even the ones where I’m paying my bill.
I guess I’m confused that you’re surprised. Online ads are a major source of revenue for any enterprise and are a wise use of web-page real-estate, as annoying as they may be.