Technology

How to Avoid Banner Blindness Using UX?

By Christy Bella | January 12, 2023

Table of Contents

According to digital marketing experts, we are exposed to between 4000 and 10000 ads per day. After learning this, it is no wonder our brain started to filter out most of them, is it?

Banner blindness affects both advertisers and publishers, which is why it is important to reverse it. And one of the most effective ways to do it is through UX design.

But before getting into the solution, let’s see what banner blindness is, why it matters, and how you can solve it.

What Is Banner Blindness?

Banner blindness is a type of selective attention to advertisements. It is a phenomenon in which we, the users, intentionally or unintentionally ignore banner ads on web pages, both on desktop and mobile screens. It is estimated that over 80% of users experience banner blindness.

We are more than used to ignoring ads because it has become a mechanical or automatic process. We expect banner ads to pop up at specific places on the web page, so we do not even look at those places anymore. Instead, we scroll immediately to find the information we are looking for.

What is more, ad clutter is a real problem that drives users further away from advertising and even makes us develop methods to ignore them completely.

Other factors contributing to banner blindness are poor design, a wrong target audience, misleading content, and interruptive, annoying ads.

Why Avoiding Banner Blindness Is Important?

As you should know, we have free access to so many content pages about virtually any subject on the internet because of ads. Ads convert into revenue and finance the publishers of a website. Without them, we would find paywalls on every website.

When users ignore banner ads systematically, what happens is that there is a fall in clicks and, thus, revenue.

Consequently, advertisers lose interest in the website and pull out their investment, leaving the publishers without funding for more free content.

So to keep free access to information, it is necessary to find ways to promote conversions by making ads appealing to the public.

How to Avoid Banner Blindness Using UX?

UX design holds the key not only to reducing or avoiding banner blindness but also optimizing ad revenue. Here are a few simple techniques an UX design agency can help you develop to turn visitors into buyers:

Give Banner Ads a Makeover

Users are good at detecting ads immediately by their looks. Create more appealing banner ads with captivating fonts and colours, simplicity, and adequate sizing.

Move Ads Around the Page

As we mentioned before, using the standard location for banner ads results in banner blindness. Put the ad in an unexpected location on the website to draw the user’s attention.

Apply the F-pattern

Usually, users scan the web page in an F-pattern – from the top left of the page to the right. Place the ad along the F lines, and it will not go unnoticed.

Try Interactive Ads

Interactive ads invite the user to participate and thus draw their attention to the ad.

Test Your Ad

Run an A/B test to figure out which ad format leads to less banner blindness. This allows you to work towards the best succeeding advertisements. This trick also helps you understand if banner ads perform well with your target audience overall. If not, consider exploring different options, maybe some even less expensive than a banner ad.

Conclusion

Ads are not always bad or irrelevant. On the contrary, it is possible to show the ideal ads to the right audience. It is even possible that many people miss opportunities that could interest them because they never look at banner ads. And that is the result of poor management of banner ads, which contributes to growing banner blindness.

However, a simple strategy change is sufficient to increase conversions and keep both advertisers and publishers satisfied.