Online banner advertising has been around for years, and digital markets have been using it to advertise and get users to interact with their brand. However, this isn't often the case because ad fatigue and banner blindness are common problems associated with online advertising. The average internet user is likely to scroll past your banner ads repeatedly.
What is banner blindness?
Banner blindness happens when online users fail to interact with your banner ads knowingly or unknowingly. Users have become conditioned to ignore or filter ads out automatically while they surf the web. For example, you have probably come across a couple of banner ads today, but most likely, you can't recall any of their offers.
It is one of the significant challenges most online ad marketers face. Still, fortunately, there are creative ways to combat ad blindness and get your ads unobtrusively seen by customers. Let's look at some statistics to help us understand the challenges and preventive measures before we look at ways to prevent banner blindness.
Banner Blindness Statistics
- The click-through-rate (CTR) for the first banner advert in 1994 was 44%, and today it has dropped dramatically to an average of 0.4%.
- Only about 14% of internet users can recall a product, service, or brand, after viewing an ad.
- Only 2.8% of online browsers think ads are relevant.
- Over 86% of consumers are prone to banner blindness.
- 82.7% of ads will do better via live rates, odds, and product feeds.
- Adverts have an 18.4% higher click-through-rate when used in videos.
- Mobile devices have the best all weekend ad impressions at 3. 55.2%
Bearing these numbers in mind, here are the necessary steps that marketers and publishers need to take to prevent banner blindness and increase traffic and cash flow.
Pay Attention to Your Advert Placement
The placement of banners on a website is the number one way to decrease banner blindness. An infolinks survey stated that over 156% of website visitors were more aware of ads at the top of the webpage as opposed to the bottom. Also, Eye-tracking maps confirm that web users are more likely to take note of banners that sit above the fold of the website page. Thus this confirms the top of the page on your website as the best spot to place a banner.
Additionally, when you're thinking of the best place to place your banner ads consider alternative locations such as:
- Within the first paragraph of a text, or right after it, to grab the reader's attention immediately
- Within your blog, i.e., between the posts in your blog
- Make use of welcome page ads.
Make Use of Relevant Content and Keywords
Consumers will not interact with your ad if they do not find the content relevant. It is crucial that your website banner adverts are targeted, useful, relevant, and interesting enough to engage visitors. These are a few tips to consider when creating an active banner ad:
- Think of what you want the ad to accomplish
- Don't post ads without understanding your visitors' needs
- Make use of cookies to create relevant and personalized ads. It'll help your website identify users who have visited your site previously.
- Add relevant keywords that your audience will likely use when looking for your type of product or service.
So, for instance, the website banner for a paper writing service review site such as Online Writers Rating should have words like “cheap paper review.” Using relevant keywords will better grab the attention of its potential customers.
Consider Using Non-Standard Sizes, Colors, and Advert Formats
Your adverts need to be visually pleasing to look at if you don't want to experience a case of ad blindness. When your visitors keep seeing the same banner ads repeatedly, they can quickly become bored. So when creating an advert space, try to:
- Select Non-standard formats and designs that can grab visitors' attention
- Make your banners a part of the page and not as an outer advert
Use colors that pop or are unusual, but try not to use too many
- Include compelling themes and your brand personality to make the ad interactive
- Make use of animated banner ads and likewise 3D designs
- Create ads that contrast with the rest of your website page
- Use human faces or directional cues
- Include a prominent call-to-action (CTA) button like the ones on the essay writing review website Best Writers Online. The “read the review” and “visit the website” CTA buttons are very minimal yet functional.
Make Your Ads Mobile Friendly
Form the statistics we saw above; it shows that mobile devices have the best all weekend ad impressions at 3. 55.2%. Coupled with the high volume of users who access the internet via mobile devices, you need to have a mobile and social presence for your banner ads. When creating adverts for mobile devices, you should consider:
- First, start by making your website mobile-friendly
- Using short videos for your mobile banner ads. It works seamlessly, and users can watch it even on the go
- Activating your social media campaigns, because mobile devices are where users make use of social media apps the most
- Add a ‘Call Now' button in your banner ads. It makes sense since the user has their mobile phone in their hand.
Keep your Advert Posting-Frequency Low
When posting both new campaigns and remarketing campaigns, your ad frequency should be low. The reason is that a high posting frequency will mean that your visitors keep seeing the ad over and over again. And of course, this will lead to automatic banner blindness.
A recent analysis carried out by AdEspresso shows how advert frequency affects the factors like click-through rate, cost-per-click, and cost-per-conversion of an ad campaign. The ads seen by users at least twice had a decrease in CTR by 8.91%, and the same ad viewed up to four times, decreased further to 23.34%.
The essential aspect of posting at a low frequency is to keep a watch on the metrics. When your ad frequency gets close to 3 points, it's a good time to post. However, if it gets to a frequency that is over 3, you should consider pausing on the post and creating ads that convey new messages or layout.
Conclusion
Imagine spending all the resources to create your banner ads, hoping to gain conversion and then wham! Banner blindness makes all the effort worthless. Sometimes you need a bit of re-strategizing and helpful tips, which I hope this article has provided on how to prevent banner blindness.
Banner ads are efficient and relevant. You just need to remember who you are creating these ads for. With the right advert tools, content, placement, etc., it can help increase your traffic and cash flow.
