Using Banner Ads

Placing a billboard type ad on other websites has been around for a long time. They have waxed and waned in popularity as some studies show that many people ignore banner type advertisements. 

 

Banner Blindness

Many studies have shown that people are good at ignoring advertising. Site visitors have learned to hone in on the main content and ignore banners as demonstrated in the heat map below. The red areas show where people look the most. Notice that the text is red and the images and banners are rarely seen.

 

Heat map showing banner blindness. Yellow boxes are banners, red and yellow areas are what the visitor is reading

People do block banner ads for the most part, but don’t rule them out completely for your site. Sometimes a well placed banner ad that contains related content can be effective.