Last time I gave a very simple tip that makes for easy reading.
This time, here’s a simple lesson in banner blindness.
If you’ve never heard of it before, it’s a just a way of describing how folk have learnt to block out banners and ads online.
(But it happens offline too, as you’ll see).
Banner click through rates are shocking, which is why any banner or ad you create needs to jolt or jar – really startle the reader – otherwise you’re wasting your money.
The alternative, if you can’t bring yourself to look cheap or offensive, is to blend in to the page, and look like part of the page content itself, rather than an ad.
Personally, I always go down the jarring route (a lot of publishers won’t let your ad look like their content).
Here’s an example – and you would you believe it, it’s our best performing ad on a particular horse site. It really does give the reader a jolt.
Now here’s an offline example, that for me, demonstrates banner blindness in spades:
Did you spot it?
Do you know what? I’m not even going to say. Keep looking, you’ll spot it. And that’s banner blindness.
Now you know about it, think about your ads: they have to jar or jolt, or fit in with the page like content, otherwise you’re wasting your money.
More stuff like this, shamelessly stolen, here.
Best
Al