Banner ads don't work

March 23rd, 2006 • Posted by Bill Bice • Permalink

When was the last time you looked at or clicked on a banner ad? We trained ourselves a long time ago to ignore them. It's just someone trying to sell you something, and it's rarely what you want. Now, on your own website, is there something that is so important that you've used snazzy graphics to highlight it? It's probably having exactly the opposite effect — your visitors don't even see it.

Usability testing watches actual people use websites to understand what works and what doesn't. Here's an example from Jakob Neilson:

The Haribon Foundation in the Philippines had lots of good information about the environment and endangered animals. On the foundation website, we asked users to find out which endangered birds live in a certain location. Despite the fact that every single page on Haribon featured a big colorful box promoting an interactive map of key conservation sites in the Philippines, nobody clicked this link. People tried every other alternative to find out about the birds, and again we had to force users to click the application link.

Neilson is like the fashion designer that always wears black: his own website is as plain as can be (but usable).

Neilson's findings are a great example of why we recommend promoting your great new capability of Instant Gift Certificates with text in the main content of your home page and in your navigation links. Fancy graphics just don't get noticed.

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