All of us have certain habits when it comes to browsing the internet. We read news articles, educate ourselves on certain topics and consume other types of content.
Most internet websites still use banners as a means to advertise something and gain potential revenue. The more we visit the website, the more we get used to its layout and how to reach the content that we’re interested in as soon as possible.
This means that usually, we don’t even notice an ad being somewhere, since we’re focused on what we’re interested in.
The same principle applies to many visitors and as a result, quite often these types of campaigns are less effective in getting people to perform a certain action.
We will take a look at a modern e-commerce phenomenon called “banner blindness”, what it is and how to make sure your own website avoids this.
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What is “banner blindness”?
By definition banner blindness refers to an unconscious block out of a banner ad placed on a website.
If a person visits, for example, a news website to read the latest articles, reviews, among other things, in the long run, they get used to how your website is structured and what’s the fastest way to reach what they are looking for, without noticing anything else.
For websites living off advertisements, this phenomenon is bad news. No matter how well a campaign is built, people simply won’t notice what your advertising simply because they wouldn’t notice, even if they aren’t purposefully ignoring these ads.
No clicks equal no revenue. Luckily, there are some things you can do to avoid banner blindness on your website. We will take a deeper look below.
Methods to help you avoid banner blindness
1. Don’t be afraid of a different look to your ad
While it’s difficult to do so sometimes, try to blend your campaign with your website’s content as much as possible. Examine the theme that you are using, and your color scheme, and see how well you can incorporate it.
It may seem counterintuitive at first, after all, you want your ad to get noticed, right? Well, think about it this way. If a person visits your website for the first time and sees a clearly placed banner, they will simply scroll past it without even looking the next time.
Using limited text and neutral colors are the best practices when it comes to making your website seamless with the rest of your site.
2. Make sure to measure different variations
Statistics should be your main weapon when determining the effectiveness of a banner ad. A good choice would be to try a few variants of your campaign with different designs, texts and overall structure.
This way, you’ll notice whether or not the majority of your visitors do have banner blindness or not, and will find an ad that works better overall and generates more positive response from people.
Some marketing software even allows you to perform this A/B test right on the spot, so if you have such a tool, be sure to capitalize on its capabilities.
3. A banner ad might not be a good option for you
If you test out different campaigns and try blending your ad better with the content, but still cannot see the desired results, then it’s time to look at different ad types to help you reach the appropriate goals.
Quite often, alternatives to banners are much cheaper to run and can generate similar, if not, better returns on investment.
Some of these include sidebar ads, pop-ups, middle-of-page ones, and others.
Playing around with different placements, even those where ads don’t normally appear can also be an effective thing to utilize for both new and older website visitors.
All in all
Those were the 3 ways to work at eliminating banner blindness. A difficult problem to solve for many advertisers, this phenomenon can be best dealt with by subverting the expectations of the visitor and making sure that they are more likely to see your ad.
