I was at a party on Sunday discussing the Internet and social media sites with people who aren't a part of the industry. One woman in her 50s, who is a regular user of the Internet, said that she routinely ignores all the banners and other ads on the pages she's looking at. It's like "I don't even notice they're there," she somewhat proudly announced.
That "banner blindness" is apparently very common according to a recent "eye tracking" study conducted by The Nielsen/Norman Group. Written up in ClickZ, the study's bottom line is that while relevant text ads "work," graphical ads are much less effective:
Text advertising is read more often than display ads, according to the research.
Banner blindness means Internet users focus on the content on a page and ignore the advertisements. This is especially true for bright, flashing ads, and other units that are not relevant to what the user is interested in reading, the researchers found.
"People are not looking at the typical blinding, graphical ads," said Nielsen Norman Group Director of Research Kara Pernice Coyne. "They are not [looking] enough time to absorb a complex ad or branding message."
This is obviously bad news for display advertising, which is one of the fastest growing segments online. Last year, display ads (including video) accounted for $4.3 billion (or 34%) of a $12.4 billion online ad spend.
Obviously using relevance as one of the criteria in ad serving is critical then even with so-called "brand advertising." Indeed, "relevance" is a critical component of any online ad program. That's one of the takeaways that Yahoo! learned from its experience of search marketing that prompted it to build Panama.
According to Nielsen Norman's Coyne, graphical ads that "work" include:
- Heavy use of large, clear text
- A color scheme that matches the site's style
- Attention-grabbing proprieties such as black text on a white background, words such as "free" and interactive (UI) elements.
Here's more from John Battelle.
Screenwerk 
June 26, 2006 at 5:01 pm
I’ve suggested for some time that online ads actually train consumers not to click on them. As consumers become savvier they begin to read webpages with blinders on, they only focus on the content in the center and ignore the advertising gutters around the content.
Contextual advertising helps to mitigate some of this effect, especially when they are text only, because they disguise themselves, to some degree as content.
While consumers are increasingly trained to ignore the ads that are pushed on them, there is one form of advertising that is pull-based, and that is coupons. People actively look for coupons. (Apologies for plugging my company, but I spend a lot of time thinking/researching this topic) My company, ZiXXo, provides an API so that these coupons can be embedded into the content in the center, thus blurring the line between content and advertising.
Let me give you an example: You go to an online yellow pages site and search for an auto mechanic in your area. The search results include a link to the company’s website, directions, and coupons. ZiXXo serves the coupon information, through an API, and it is embedded right into the content, adding value to the user experience.
Advertising started as push. Through text ads and context, Overture and Google have implemented a “pseudo-pull” model, but these ads are sill relegated to the ad gutter. I believe that we’ll see coupons integrated into content and a next wave of pure pull advertising.