Banner Blindness is a long-known web user behaviour: it describes people’s tendency to ignore page elements that they perceive (correctly or incorrectly) to be ads. And, while webpage patterns and types of advertisements have evolved, banner blindness is still prevalent.

Visitors mostly skim through web pages in patterns based on their needs. Example: If a visitor is just scanning through a website without any interest, an F Pattern of reading is employed.

On the other hand, if a user is genuinely interested in the website’s content, a Z Pattern (Gutenberg Rule) of reading is employed. Based on these theories, publishers usually display their ads at the top of a page (primary optical area) or on the right rail (strong follow area).

In either case, users will direct their attention to areas of a page where they expect to find the information they are looking for, ignoring places where ads are typically displayed such as the top of the page and the right sidebar. This mental framework is called Cognitive Schemata. People use schemata (the plural of schema) to categorize objects and events based on common elements and characteristics and thus interpret and predict the world.

Apart from this, there are factors like predictable ad placements, ad clutter, distinguishable formatting and untargeted ads that are responsible for ad blindness.

How can publishers optimise ads to avoid banner blindness?

Experiment With Size and Placement

By experimenting with different sizes and ad placements, publishers can capitalize on digital real estate that avoids traditional banner locations for maximum impact advertising. One option publishers may want to consider is welcome page ads. Welcome page ads contain a welcoming thought or quote before directing the reader to their content. They have become increasingly trendy recently, particularly on news and media sites.

Stop Making Your Ads Look Like Ads

The rising popularity of native ads can be explained by the fact that contrary to looking like a banner ad, they look, and feel, like part of the surrounding digital landscape. Designing ads that match the surrounding content in colour, font, type, and background will go a long way to diminishing banner blindness and upping ad revenue.

Use Interactive Advertising

Interactive ads that employ rich media to encourage the audience to interact have been shown to have much higher engagement.

Some examples of interactive ads include:

• Short video ads with high video quality
• Playable ads
• 3D ads
• Augmented Reality ads

In conclusion, banner blindness is a severe problem in digital advertising, with many publishers losing valuable monetization opportunities.

By understanding how humans read web pages and continually optimizing and testing their banner ad campaigns, publishers and advertisers can ensure they don’t get ignored.

Sources: Publift, Nielsen Norman Group, Britannica Education