As the internet has expanded over the last twenty years or so, Marketing departments have increasingly seen the web as a sound platform for advertising. But recently, people have been asking whether or not it actually sends qualifies traffic and, even more importantly, does it send any potential customers at all!

Banner Blindness, or Ad Blindness, is the school of thought that consumers have become so accustomed to seeing advertisements on their favourite websites that they subconsciously block it out. Some Marketing Psychologists have said that even the user seeing the advert in the first place is enough to position in their mind. However, even if this is true, it doesn’t benefit the modern day Web Publisher.

How Does Banner Blindness Effect Web Publishers?

Many blog websites, like this one, don’t charge anything to their visitors for viewing and learning from the information provided. Whilst this keeps the web open and encourages more and more people to come back again and again, it does throw up an issue that they are not profiting from the site itself and is a problem. Many publishers get around this by selling e-books, using the site as a lead generation process or just getting donations. But having advertising on your website is a good way to recoup some of the money lost with the Opportunity Cost of working on your site and paying to have it hosted.

So, if your visitor subconsciously takes in the message shown on the advertisement for later, it doesn’t bring in any revenue because no clicks have been made. It is true that some advertisers pay by impression (or pay by view) but this is usually a negligible amount and isn’t nearly enough to sustain a website on alone.

How Does Banner Blindness Effect Search Marketing?

Search Marketing works a little differently to adverts used by Web Publishers. When a user is scanning your web page they are being kept there by the content which is displayed, hopefully being fresh unique and engaging. Any chance of clicks comes from the adverts showing something with relevant to the user (with interest based ads) or something relevant to the content (with contextual ads).

However, when a visitor searches for something on a search engine, such as Google, they are more prone to notice advertisements and with the vast majority of search results being displayed as a text link, it allows for more successful blending with the content without being outwardly misleading between what is an advert and what is not.

How To Avoid Banner Blindness On Your Website

So, the whole reason you’re here is to find out how to boost your AdSense or BSA earnings by working out how to create a better system which discourages “Ad Blindness”. Unfortunately, there is no set model and wherever you place your advertisements on your site, there is no sure fire way to stop them ignoring it.

But if we look at it logically, the reasons why people may develop Banner Blindness on your website will down to either:

• They are very familiar with your website and know exactly where adverts will show and where the content of the site is.
• Your adverts do not blend in with the rest of the site and the visitor knows where to avoid clicking.

If your customers are familiar with your website layout it could be that you are using a very popular theme or template for your website. Often used with WordPress websites. In which case you should use some kind of plugin to create a non-standard layout of advertisements, such as a rotation plugin which blends them seamlessly throughout the content of your page (incidentally where your viewers eyes will be) or you fork out to buy a premium template which are sometimes customised to show advertisements in more unusual places.

The other scenario is that your users will be regular readers of your website which means that they regularly come back to read more news and will have developed Banner Blindness in time. In this situation I would move the focus away from traditional advertisements and try to encourage more Affiliate Earnings as your readers will often trust your judgement and be more willing to follow links you have included in a review or blog post.

If your advertisements do not blend in with the rest of your content then you are looking at a totally different situation which means that your consumers are consciously aware that something is different. The good part of this is that there eye will automatically be attracted to something that is different, it is our psychology. The bad part of course is that it will become obvious immediately why it is different and may increase the risk of Banner Blindness and they won’t need to look again to know what it is.

My Conclusion

I believe that there are many arguments which state Banner Blindness is a real element which can reduce your adsense earnings but many have disputed (with good solid evidence) that Banner Blindness is anything other than a myth. I think that rotating advertisements in different places is a good idea anyway because there is nothing to be lost by keeping your visitors on their toes and reduce the risk of people becoming too accustomed with web page layouts.

Posted By Jack Davis

One could be forgiven for thinking that talking about the use of colour in marketing materials and its effect on human psychology would be something that is relatively easy to document. However, because colours are in fact wavelengths of energy they are a physical force and therefore quite capable of producing real reactions within us. With spirituality focusing so strongly on different colours as different energies one has to tread carefully to make sure they don’t assign scientific factors to meanings and emotions which we have assigned to different colours as a result of sociocultural factors.

No matter the source of the emotions it is without doubt that the use of colours is highly effective for influencing the human psyche. In this blog we will go through how the use of different colours in marketing can promote a wide and virtually endless set of responses from consumers.

What Colours Mean, Psychologically

Here I will go through all of the colours which inspire different reactions. I’ll list some positive and some negative associations but many of them you will be able to do yourself anyway because as you read them, you may start thinking “oh yeah!”.

I will precede it by saying that these definitions are widely adopted agreements on the psychological impact of colours in western cultures. Later on we will go into how these definitions can change as you move from country to country and even through the cultures and subcultures within them.

The study of Consumer Psychology (or Consumer Behaviour) is a very vast subject which many small businesses believe doesn’t apply to them. They see all the amazing scientific studies and practical methods adopted by corporations but the very core of the subject is something that every single one of us can benefit from understanding, whether it be to create stronger emotions in your customers or to become a more savvy shopper by knowing the strategies the chain stores are adopting to capture your well-earned pounds.

Every single customer follows a similar process when it comes to deciding to purchase a product or pay for a service. For some of the more common problems in people’s lives customers may go through this process extremely quickly whilst other situations will require more time and effort.

The Decision Making Process

Awareness of the problem

This is the stage where the consumer becomes aware that there is a particular problem or need which has to be resolved. The consumer will analyse what is needed to solve the issue, sometimes subconsciously.

Research & Evaluation

The consumer follows the decision making process of evaluating which products or services are out there which could remove the problem. In recent times it usually amounts to a Google Search and scanning information from the various websites or visiting physical locations like supermarkets and browsing. There are sometimes other, more social solutions such as asking friends for recommendations or posting a request for help on Facebook.

This is the stage where many companies try to jump in and sway the consumer towards one product or another. Some marketing campaigns even take care of the first step by highlighting the need for a particular service and thus have the added benefit of having their attention and a margin of trust by being the first to showcase it.

Alas, where most businesses fail is that the belief that this is the only stage they have to be concerned about.

Completing the purchase

After all the known alternatives have been assessed and weighed against each other the consumer decides on whether or not to actually make a purchase or not. If no purchase is made then the problem is ignored or shelved for another time when the options are more favorable.

Whilst many would think that this would be the easiest part of the decision making process, it is actually the part which requires the most information processing. The consumer has to choose where, when and how to buy the solution. With products that have regular promotions and healthy competition it can make the decision even harder to complete. Can he buy it cheaper online? Would he get it faster from a store? Could he get two-for-one in this shop but could he get a discount from somewhere else?

It is the part of the decision making model which calls into account the “Opportunity Cost” of the product. It is also a stage where loyalty to a company could be swayed if it is beneficial for the consumer.

Post-sale evaluation

This is the stage where the consumer looks back and decides whether a) the product/service actually solves the problem as it promised, and b) whether another product might have been more suitable.

From a marketing point of view, this is the most valuable stage of the decision making process as it affects that most precious of all promotion channels: Word of mouth.

For those of you who would consider the sale itself the most crucial, we find ourselves at a disagreement. Whilst getting sales is a good goal you have to remember that marketing is now a long-term game and should be treated as such. Having one sale is good; having a loyal customer who will buy from you often and advocate your business to all of their social circles is even better! Remember that you get 80% of your profits from 20% of your customers, so you always need to be thinking about the post-sale implications of selling.

So, to apply this to real life let’s look at two different situation which require the consumer’s decision making process to get started.