Are Consumers Blind to your Digital Banner?
Posted by Renee Watkins, Digital Marketing Manager, fi360 on February 02, 2016
Are consumers blind to your digital banner ads?
Every day, consumers are bombarded with banner display advertisements. In fact, the average internet user is exposed to 1,707 banner ads on a monthly basis! This has resulted in a phenomenon called, “banner blindness” which is defined as when consumers either consciously or subconsciously ignore the majority of banner display ads they encounter. 86% of consumers today suffer from banner blindness. This phenomenon has caused to average click rate of a banner ad to drop to a mere .11%.
However, despite these dismal numbers, banner display ads still play a very crucial role in today’s marketing efforts. So what is a marketer to do?
Below are a few ways you can give your banner ads the best chance of engaging consumers:
- Develop goals before brainstorming the goals of the ad. For example, brands looking to boost engagement metrics should leverage interactive, rich-media ads, while brands looking to convert consumers should leverage retargeting ads.
- Keep it simple. Cluttered designs tend to underperform. Headline copy concise and benefit-oriented to drive engagement and conversions.
- Give value to your call-to-actions. Avoid the standard “Click Here” call-to-action and swap it out for something that invokes a stronger emotional response from the user such as “Download the report”” or “Get Coupon.”
- Validate authority and brand awareness by placing your logo on the ad. However, a recent Rocket Fuel study revealed that digital ads with logos in the lower left-hand corner averaged 81% higher than ads with logos in other locations.
- Maintain campaign cohesiveness. This includes color combinations, font, and layout. Ads should have a synergistic connection across a multi-channel campaign.
Of course, like any other marketing channel out there, there isn’t a “single recipe for success.” So it’s important to A/B test your digital ads, compare your results, and go with what is working best for you.
