Comments on: Eyetracking Shows Web Audience Ignores Ads

By: Advertising Golf on FaceBook « Diary of a Suburban Startup

Advertising Golf on FaceBook « Diary of a Suburban Startup — Fri, 27 Feb 2009 17:27:45 +0000

[...] mean, I have heard that Facebook converts poorly and that the latest eye tracking is showing an increasing amount of banner blindness [one would expect that the results are higher for really sticky websites that people interact with [...]

By: For the Future of Marketing, Look to Social Media - GigaOM

For the Future of Marketing, Look to Social Media - GigaOM — Mon, 16 Jun 2008 19:00:34 +0000

[...] clear evidence that brute-force marketing is no longer as effective as it once was, what I find surprising is that [...]

By: How ads can harm your website design | fabianvercuiel.com

How ads can harm your website design | fabianvercuiel.com — Wed, 07 May 2008 23:06:30 +0000

[...] to Rule? – Ad Blindness Is Nothing New … and it’s No Surprise Google Is Seeing It! – Eyetracking Shows Web Audience Ignores Ads – Banner Blindness, Human Cognition and Web Design – Ad blindness Share this post: These icons [...]

By: Click Fraud Keeps on Rising | Social Media Trader

Click Fraud Keeps on Rising | Social Media Trader — Fri, 07 Mar 2008 20:15:57 +0000

[...] Bombarding users with traditional advertising may give you a conversion ratio which seems reasonable, but engaging them in conversation through social media will strengthen your brand, target specific audiences, and present opportunities for building long lasting relationships. Investing in your users has the potential to pay much more dividends than blindly advertising to them, especially with the growing concern of advertising blindness. [...]

By: Big and Bold vs. High Contrast and Elegant

Big and Bold vs. High Contrast and Elegant — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 04:14:04 +0000

[...] was proven through eye tracking studies performed by Jacob Neilson and others that, on the web, people ignore sections of a web page that [...]

By: Is There Economic Sense in a WSJ-Digg Marriage? »TechAddress

Is There Economic Sense in a WSJ-Digg Marriage? »TechAddress — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 13:34:03 +0000

[...] to socially driven sites like Digg. It’s no secret that a large part of the Digg traffic is either banner-blind or disables ads completely using Ad-block. Even the ones that don’t block the ads are [...]

By: Warning: People Are Ignoring Advertising. But They Do Read News : The Copywriter’s Crucible

Wed, 12 Sep 2007 14:41:28 +0000

[...] This was illustrated by a recent study by web usability guru Jakob Nielsen on eye tracking on websites (link via Marketing Pilgrim post). [...]

By: make art not ads - getting your readers’ attention – by [muhammad.saleem]

make art not ads - getting your readers’ attention – by [muhammad.saleem] — Mon, 10 Sep 2007 06:28:52 +0000

[...] two weeks ago, jordan mccollum reported on an interested study conducted by nielsen that found that online ad-blindness is worsening. if [...]

By: Brian

Brian — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 20:25:59 +0000

I have to weigh in here. I work for a guy that pays a decent sum of money to Google everyday to have the top spot for what he sells in the sponsored ad section. I don’t have the heart to tell him that I never look at those ads because they don’t mean that he is the best choice for his product. It just means that he has that much money to throw away right now. Targeted ads do very little to me because I choose to ignore a lot of what I see. I want to be able to make up my own mind in choosing a product, not have some money-making executive that makes far more than I do decide for me. I’m not naive enough to ignore that I probably have help deciding from magazines based around those products that I buy, but at least there I can decide how objective they are and if it’s something that I want to buy.

By: Roland

Roland — Mon, 03 Sep 2007 08:17:38 +0000

So they’re slowly catching up why Googles ads are so successful: because they aren’t annoying or obstrusive, they not only look like content (text), they ARE content and provide real information to the user… and provide it quick. No need to wait a few seconds for those “great animations” until the banner ad finally comes to the point.

And Google adwords are always on-topic, related to the article in some way and thus really deserve to get some attention. Nothing is more annoying than someone or something that tries to invade your thoughts forcefully, may it be the newspaper salesman on the street or a flashy ad on a webpage…

By: Matt Keegan

Matt Keegan — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 22:36:31 +0000

This news isn’t surprising. Long ago I quit clicking on ads and I recently removed AdSense from my flagship blog as the annoyance didn’t justify the few bucks that I made.

Content is king and bloggers/web site owners need to find different ways to monetize their sites. Personally, I am tired of some of the more spammy looking site out there — too many widgets, chicklets, and ads to to get through in order to read the content.

By: adrian

adrian — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 01:58:15 +0000

funny, according to this study, side ad at marketingpilgrim also doesn’t work anymore. it’s it ironic?

By: Lisa Tiyamiyu » links for 2007-08-29

Lisa Tiyamiyu » links for 2007-08-29 — Wed, 29 Aug 2007 01:28:35 +0000

[...] Eyetracking Shows Web Audience Ignores Ads (tags: statistics eye-tracking) [...]

By: Owen

Owen — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 07:20:02 +0000

Great post, and some great comments. I’d have to agree with the ones that talk about how images have a greater impact that text. If you look at your ads in the top right hand corner, Andy’s photo is one that sticks out most. Not because of the space invaders in the background, but because the simplicity of the image draws the eye away from the text.

By: Yuri

Yuri — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 05:17:39 +0000

Heh, it's been a while I've been saying that people should use text instead of graphics on their websites (including advertisers).

By: Andy Beal

Andy Beal — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 20:18:30 +0000

Great comments.

We try to encourage advertisers to change up their ad and message, so that the ads don’t become invisible. Likewise, we provide RSS advertising – which is text base – and also give our advertisers a shout-out once a month in a blog post.

Let me know if you have any other ideas for ad formats. Thanks!

By: Michael Martinez

Michael Martinez — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:07:03 +0000

Web spammers could learn a thing or two about how to design their pages based on that report. I do find that internal banner advertising still gets reasonable click-throughs but I’m in the process of phasing out traditional large banners. My visitors have always been more interested in the content.

By: Brian Gilley

Brian Gilley — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 17:45:22 +0000

Doesn’t surprise me. If you look at trends from years ago – 2000 to 2003 or thereabout, you’d find the same held true for image banner “types,” like the 468 x 60 size that was overused back then.

I think the same holds true for placement as well as “type” of ad. Webmasters need to mix ads in the content more, disclose it (if they really want to), and overall mix it up a bit more if they’re basing growth on ad click revenue.

By: Kristen

Kristen — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 15:56:27 +0000

Yes, content is key but the fact is that the more annoying the ad the easier it is for our subconscious mind to pick it up. Let’s face it, people remember the annoying ads whether they want to or not and of course, that is the point-brand recognition, is it not?

By: Blogging Mix

Blogging Mix — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 13:52:48 +0000

It’s all about proper placement of ads. The more the ad becomes like a part of the blog the higher the changes of it getting clicked.