Users do not see banners
Note: Below is a partial review of the article "Banner Blindness: Old and New Findings" . It examines the current position of the banner advertising market on the Internet and suggests the most effective ways of advertising.
Users rarely look at advertisements on sites. Further in the article four main methods that can attract the user's attention are considered, but one of them is in a certain sense dishonest and can undermine the very trust in advertising.
')
Not so long ago, a study was conducted of the user 's way of looking at a web page, then the conclusions that can be drawn from it are discussed.
In 1997, there was a similar situation in the online advertising market: announcements similar to dialog boxes (with two OK and Cancel buttons) were a great success. Naturally, they were only pictures, but this did not prevent users from clicking hard on them (after all, they tried to press OK or Cancel ). This method of cheating visitors to the resource ranks third among the most hated advertising methods .
The naturalness of the surrounding context plays an important role in the study of the behavior of a user's view on a page: otherwise, it will not be possible to correctly calculate how adequate or inadequate the user's response is if you show him, for example, just a form without all the usual site design and ask her to fill out.
The most significant result is not new. It only confirms the fact that users almost never look in the direction of elements that look like advertisements, whether they are it or not.
On hundreds of pages, users do not stop advertising. The following heatmaps display three examples of different user behavior when working with page content: fast scanning, partial reading, and in-depth familiarization . A quick scan of the pages is more common than reading, but if the user really likes the article, he starts reading it completely.
The areas to which the users' viewpoint turned most are marked in red ; yellow areas show fewer views; and in the gray areas, no fixation of sight was recorded at all. The green frames around the advertisements were already applied to the resulting maps, users did not see them.
In all three models of user behavior, you can see one common feature regarding banners (circled in green in the previous picture): users almost did not stop at advertising. If users were looking for something specific, they wanted to finish as soon as possible, and the banners did not interest them. If users were absorbed in reading, then they were not going to pay attention to anything other than text.
These cards also show that users do not stop at the page design elements that resemble advertising, although they are not (in the figures they are not enclosed in a green frame).
The following video clips record the detailed behavior of one of the users when he seeks advice on retirement investing.
As shown in the record, the user only hit the ad once, but at that moment it was closed by a drop-down menu. The action takes place so quickly that it may be worthwhile to revise slow-motion recording.
The first exception to the rule stated above is the text ads in the search results: they get a sufficient number of fixation of sight. Another exception is consistent, systematic ads. And finally, there is a possibility that ads may be included in the video being watched.
In addition to the claimed methods, another approach was found that contradicts the basic ethical principle of creating advertising: the ad should not look like the content of the page, the difference between copyright text and paid ads should always be clear and understandable, advertising should not only look like element of the site design, but also located "right in the middle" of the page content. Self-respecting newspapers do not even allow ads in any way to imitate their branded headset or other elements of the layout. But if you want to attract the maximum attention of users to advertising on the Internet, this is exactly what should be done.
A separate ad may or may not be ethical: it depends on how much it is disguised as the natural content of the pages. It is worth avoiding the abuse of this rule, because it can be counterproductive and mislead the user. If you cheat users time after time, you may lose their trust and the use of such advertising will lead to losses.
When you place your banner in the banner-exchange network, its click-through rate will be lower than if you contact the author of the site directly and create a personal banner for it (individual banners have a higher click-through rate). As a result, you also do not have to lose on the deductions of the network itself.
Thank you for your attention to the note. I would appreciate feedback and comments on the topic, as well as any constructive comments.
Problem
Users rarely look at advertisements on sites. Further in the article four main methods that can attract the user's attention are considered, but one of them is in a certain sense dishonest and can undermine the very trust in advertising.
')
Not so long ago, a study was conducted of the user 's way of looking at a web page, then the conclusions that can be drawn from it are discussed.
In 1997, there was a similar situation in the online advertising market: announcements similar to dialog boxes (with two OK and Cancel buttons) were a great success. Naturally, they were only pictures, but this did not prevent users from clicking hard on them (after all, they tried to press OK or Cancel ). This method of cheating visitors to the resource ranks third among the most hated advertising methods .
Study correctness
The naturalness of the surrounding context plays an important role in the study of the behavior of a user's view on a page: otherwise, it will not be possible to correctly calculate how adequate or inadequate the user's response is if you show him, for example, just a form without all the usual site design and ask her to fill out.
The most significant result is not new. It only confirms the fact that users almost never look in the direction of elements that look like advertisements, whether they are it or not.
Banner Invisibility
On hundreds of pages, users do not stop advertising. The following heatmaps display three examples of different user behavior when working with page content: fast scanning, partial reading, and in-depth familiarization . A quick scan of the pages is more common than reading, but if the user really likes the article, he starts reading it completely.
The areas to which the users' viewpoint turned most are marked in red ; yellow areas show fewer views; and in the gray areas, no fixation of sight was recorded at all. The green frames around the advertisements were already applied to the resulting maps, users did not see them.
In all three models of user behavior, you can see one common feature regarding banners (circled in green in the previous picture): users almost did not stop at advertising. If users were looking for something specific, they wanted to finish as soon as possible, and the banners did not interest them. If users were absorbed in reading, then they were not going to pay attention to anything other than text.
These cards also show that users do not stop at the page design elements that resemble advertising, although they are not (in the figures they are not enclosed in a green frame).
The following video clips record the detailed behavior of one of the users when he seeks advice on retirement investing.
- Behavior of the gaze, normal shooting (19-second video, Windows Media format, 0.6 MB)
- Sight behavior, slow motion (1 minute video, Windows Media format, 2.2 MB)
As shown in the record, the user only hit the ad once, but at that moment it was closed by a drop-down menu. The action takes place so quickly that it may be worthwhile to revise slow-motion recording.
The first exception to the rule stated above is the text ads in the search results: they get a sufficient number of fixation of sight. Another exception is consistent, systematic ads. And finally, there is a possibility that ads may be included in the video being watched.
The fourth way to attract attention
In addition to the claimed methods, another approach was found that contradicts the basic ethical principle of creating advertising: the ad should not look like the content of the page, the difference between copyright text and paid ads should always be clear and understandable, advertising should not only look like element of the site design, but also located "right in the middle" of the page content. Self-respecting newspapers do not even allow ads in any way to imitate their branded headset or other elements of the layout. But if you want to attract the maximum attention of users to advertising on the Internet, this is exactly what should be done.
A separate ad may or may not be ethical: it depends on how much it is disguised as the natural content of the pages. It is worth avoiding the abuse of this rule, because it can be counterproductive and mislead the user. If you cheat users time after time, you may lose their trust and the use of such advertising will lead to losses.
When you place your banner in the banner-exchange network, its click-through rate will be lower than if you contact the author of the site directly and create a personal banner for it (individual banners have a higher click-through rate). As a result, you also do not have to lose on the deductions of the network itself.
Thank you for your attention to the note. I would appreciate feedback and comments on the topic, as well as any constructive comments.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/31234/
All Articles