The Attractor Factor of Banner Ads

Posted by Laura Bergells

October 30, 2006

Typically, I do not recommend banner ad buys. Banner ads have a low clickthrough rate for three reasons:

One reason: Placement. Unless you are very careful about placement, many banner ad campaigns can be out of context — for example, if your audience is researching online presentation software, and your banner ad is about lace and taffeta dresses — your ad is appearing in an out-of-context ad network. Expect exceptionally low clickthroughs if you place your ad in a very broad network category.

Second reason: Design. Personally, I do not click through on banner ads that are wildly distracting. In fact, I tend to immediately abandon web sites that allow blinking, flashing, flying ads. They are annoying. And on the flip side, the more subtle ads that blend quietly in the background do not catch my attention at all: so of course I do not click on them. Expect low clickthroughs on both flashy and subtle banner ads.

Third reason: Saturation. As members of an increasingly sophisticated web audience, we have become accustomed to ignoring banner ads, because we have learned that clicking upon them tends to give us very low satisfaction. At this stage of our web evolution, a more sophisticated online audience tries to ignore banners altogether. If one does manage to stand out, we seldom click upon it.

Therefore, a great banner ad campaign: one with phenomenally niched placement and spectacular design might not garner a high click-through rate due to saturation. But it CAN garner a positive impression.

Impression based advertising can actually end up helping you with your click-through campaigns. (Here’s the research.) So if your click-through campaigns have been lackluster as of late, you may wish to consider bolstering your impression campaigns. But make sure your design and placement is absolutely pitch-perfect: and as always, measure, test, and tweak each campaign you run.