Do you have banner blindness?
It was the largest eyeball I’d ever seen. It just stared at me. So I stared back…somewhat confused and slightly annoyed. What else could I do?
That was the last straw. The ginormous expandable banner ad on cnn.com took up my entire screen was blocking me from reading my story. I had enough. I was tired of internet ads using every trick in the book to get my attention. It was time for them to go.
After a few clicks, I installed a plugin on my internet browser and was AD FREE! And we’re not just talking about blocking pop-up or expandable ads, it removed every single display ad from every single web page. It reminded me of the early days of the internet before advertising took hold. No more floating snowmen or hit-the-monkey games. No more confusing ads that look like the page’s content. No more expanding ads that I can’t figure out how to close.
With over 10 million daily users, Adblock Plus is the most popular plugin of any category for the Firefox browser. It’s been around for years and is free, easy to install, and works quite well. As I started surfing the web in my pristine, ad free environment I wondered…how effective are display ads in the first place? Think about it…when’s the last time you actually clicked on an ad?
This brought up a few questions I set out to answer: Do people even look at banner ads these days? Who in the world actually clicks on these ads? And most importantly, are display ads effective at all?
Do people look at banner ads?
Usually not.
Jakob Nelson, noted as “the world’s leading expert on Web usability” by U.S. News and World Report, ran eyetracking studies that showed users rarely look at display ads. Researchers even came up with a fun term for this discovery, “banner blindness.” They also found that in the few instances where ads do get a lot of attention, low-brow tactics are often employed. These tactics include making the ad look like part of the publisher’s content or including a picture that will catch a man’s “wondering eye” (i.e. showing cleavage or other alluring body parts). For advertisers not willing to sell their souls for a few eyeballs, don’t expect consumers to take much notice of your ads.
Who actually clicks on these ads?
Not many people.
Comscore found that only 16% of internet users click on display ads and only 8% of people make up the vast majority (85%) of all clicks. And the people who click on these ads aren’t the most desirable segment for most marketers. The demographics of clickers skew towards those earning less than $40,000 a year. If you are relying on clicks from these people to determine the effectiveness of your campaign, you are barking up the wrong tree.
If hardly anyone looks at banner ads and even less people click on them, are banner ads effective at all?!?!
It turns out that yes, they can be.
Research from Dynamic Logic and comScore bear this out. Dynamic Logic’s most recent MarketNorms report shows that display ad campaigns generate an average lift (between control and exposed groups) of 1.5 percentage points in brand favorability and 1.2 percentage points in purchase intent. Even though people aren’t staring longingly at ads for minutes on end, this data shows that ads must be positively effecting their brand perceptions in some way (either consciously or subconsciously). Now, if you are a research methodology snob like I am, you may question the accuracy of Dynamic Logic’s studies which rely on cookies (which many people regularly delete) and which recruit participants through banner ads (skewing the sample towards people who notice banner ads). However, comScore has solved these methodological issues with their own research product, Brand Metrix.
Brand Metrix studies use a panel (people who sign up to be research participants beforehand) who agree to have special software installed on their computer to track all of their internet activities. And when I say all, I mean all – all display ads, visits to the advertisers or competitors web sites, search words entered into search engines, etc. ComScore also takes care to closely match the online behavior of the control group so that they resemble the exposed group in every way (except, of course, for exposure to the ad). After running over a hundred studies, comScore found that display ads are, in general, quite effective. On average, participants exposed to display ads had an increased likelihood to visit the advertisers website (+46%), conduct a search using the advertiser’s branded terms (+38%), and buy the advertised brand either online (+27%) or at a retail store (+17%). Not bad for something that people supposedly don’t pay much attention to.
What does all of this mean?
People don’t pay much attention to display ads. However, this doesn’t mean they aren’t effective. Research has consistently shown that the messages in display ads are getting through to the audience and affecting their future actions. But advertisers should be careful about doing whatever it takes to get noticed. Ads that beg for attention by interrupting and interfering with the user experience may do more harm than good. It’s true that they may get more clicks, but at the cost of alienating users and fostering negative perceptions of your brand.
I still don’t know what brand was behind the enormous eyeball staring at me on cnn.com. However, if I do find out then I guarantee you that whatever they are selling, I’m not buying.
- John Boese
That was the last straw. The ginormous expandable banner ad on cnn.com took up my entire screen was blocking me from reading my story. I had enough. I was tired of internet ads using every trick in the book to get my attention. It was time for them to go.After a few clicks, I installed a plugin on my internet browser and was AD FREE! And we’re not just talking about blocking pop-up or expandable ads, it removed every single display ad from every single web page. It reminded me of the early days of the internet before advertising took hold. No more floating snowmen or hit-the-monkey games. No more confusing ads that look like the page’s content. No more expanding ads that I can’t figure out how to close.
With over 10 million daily users, Adblock Plus is the most popular plugin of any category for the Firefox browser. It’s been around for years and is free, easy to install, and works quite well. As I started surfing the web in my pristine, ad free environment I wondered…how effective are display ads in the first place? Think about it…when’s the last time you actually clicked on an ad?
This brought up a few questions I set out to answer: Do people even look at banner ads these days? Who in the world actually clicks on these ads? And most importantly, are display ads effective at all?
Do people look at banner ads?
Usually not.
Jakob Nelson, noted as “the world’s leading expert on Web usability” by U.S. News and World Report, ran eyetracking studies that showed users rarely look at display ads. Researchers even came up with a fun term for this discovery, “banner blindness.” They also found that in the few instances where ads do get a lot of attention, low-brow tactics are often employed. These tactics include making the ad look like part of the publisher’s content or including a picture that will catch a man’s “wondering eye” (i.e. showing cleavage or other alluring body parts). For advertisers not willing to sell their souls for a few eyeballs, don’t expect consumers to take much notice of your ads.Who actually clicks on these ads?
Not many people.
Comscore found that only 16% of internet users click on display ads and only 8% of people make up the vast majority (85%) of all clicks. And the people who click on these ads aren’t the most desirable segment for most marketers. The demographics of clickers skew towards those earning less than $40,000 a year. If you are relying on clicks from these people to determine the effectiveness of your campaign, you are barking up the wrong tree.
If hardly anyone looks at banner ads and even less people click on them, are banner ads effective at all?!?!
It turns out that yes, they can be.
Research from Dynamic Logic and comScore bear this out. Dynamic Logic’s most recent MarketNorms report shows that display ad campaigns generate an average lift (between control and exposed groups) of 1.5 percentage points in brand favorability and 1.2 percentage points in purchase intent. Even though people aren’t staring longingly at ads for minutes on end, this data shows that ads must be positively effecting their brand perceptions in some way (either consciously or subconsciously). Now, if you are a research methodology snob like I am, you may question the accuracy of Dynamic Logic’s studies which rely on cookies (which many people regularly delete) and which recruit participants through banner ads (skewing the sample towards people who notice banner ads). However, comScore has solved these methodological issues with their own research product, Brand Metrix.
Brand Metrix studies use a panel (people who sign up to be research participants beforehand) who agree to have special software installed on their computer to track all of their internet activities. And when I say all, I mean all – all display ads, visits to the advertisers or competitors web sites, search words entered into search engines, etc. ComScore also takes care to closely match the online behavior of the control group so that they resemble the exposed group in every way (except, of course, for exposure to the ad). After running over a hundred studies, comScore found that display ads are, in general, quite effective. On average, participants exposed to display ads had an increased likelihood to visit the advertisers website (+46%), conduct a search using the advertiser’s branded terms (+38%), and buy the advertised brand either online (+27%) or at a retail store (+17%). Not bad for something that people supposedly don’t pay much attention to.
What does all of this mean?
People don’t pay much attention to display ads. However, this doesn’t mean they aren’t effective. Research has consistently shown that the messages in display ads are getting through to the audience and affecting their future actions. But advertisers should be careful about doing whatever it takes to get noticed. Ads that beg for attention by interrupting and interfering with the user experience may do more harm than good. It’s true that they may get more clicks, but at the cost of alienating users and fostering negative perceptions of your brand.
I still don’t know what brand was behind the enormous eyeball staring at me on cnn.com. However, if I do find out then I guarantee you that whatever they are selling, I’m not buying.
- John Boese