Tuesday, September 9th 2008
Banner ads have come a long way
This is the first ever ad banner:
It went online on October 25th 1994 and shows how far web banners have come today. But are they effective and as we’ve become inundated with adverts online do we still take notice of them? According to a lot of research a vast majority of surfers ignore banner ads. There’s even a term for this phenomenon called banner-blindness.
However, is this any different from the way in which any advertising works? Many people switch to another channel during the TV ad breaks. People invariably throw away direct mail and completely ignore newspaper advertising. Of course it is much easier to measure the effectiveness of banner ads so companies know exactly what their ROI is. They also know what percentage of people who saw the ad clicked on it.
I suspect that like all advertising, if the ad is targeted at the right people, then it will be effective. There are a lot of bad banner ads and very annoying ones and I find that the decent ads stand out. If I want the product or am looking for the product then I will click.
Posted by Tasha on Tuesday 9th of September 2008 at 12:05pm
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I tend to ignore banner ads - to the extent that I actually instinctively ignore the areas on a page in which I expect to find them. If I can't find what I'm looking for on that page, then I'll look at the areas that tend to have ads. I know it's not the most efficient way of looking at site, it does take me longer to find things, but it's second nature, I have to make a conscious effort not to do it.
That said, if an ad does catch my attention, it's usually because it's doing something unusual and I tend to click on it regardless of whether I'm interested in the product/service or not. I want to know what's behind that idea.
Posted by Siân on Tuesday 9th of September 2008 at 12:24pm