Banner Blindness: Why It Ruins Ad Conversions & How to Avoid It

If your banner ads aren’t getting many impressions or clicks, it’s not just you.

Many website visitors overlook these display ads on news sites and blogs. Which leads to low-performing campaigns.

But you don’t have to make your ads easy to disregard. I’ll walk you through how to overcome banner blindness and run better display ad campaigns.

Key Takeaways:

• Banner blindness prevents potential customers from seeing your ads, which compromises campaign performance.
• Irrelevance, repetition, and poor placement are the main factors that cause people to dismiss display ads.
• Experimenting with ad formats, placements, and networks helps overcome this issue and boost results.

What Is Banner Blindness?

Banner blindness is a phenomenon that causes website visitors to ignore banner ads. Essentially, site visitors become blind to this type of display ad.

It isn’t just that they only read part of the copy. Or that they spend less time considering the offer.

In many cases, visitors don’t see these ads at all. They automatically scroll past, often before the ad even loads. Or they never even look at your site’s sidebar.

How prevalent is this problem?

86% of people have banner blindness, according to an Infolinks study.

That study is more than a decade old. But banner ads haven’t changed much in that time — and people have become even more accustomed to seeing them.

So if anything, you can probably expect an even larger percentage of visitors to ignore these ads.

That isn’t great news for you as an advertiser. With an average click-through rate of just 0.46%, display ads already have one of the lowest CTR benchmarks for digital ads.

Why Your Banner Ads Aren’t Performing

Here’s why banner blindness happens — and why it causes your ads to underperform.

Their Location Is Predictable

Traditional banner ads appear in the same spots on every website, making them incredibly easy to anticipate.

They typically display at the top of the web page and in the right sidebar. Sometimes, they appear in both placements.

For example, this Pioneer Woman blog post shows the same banner ad in both spots:

This kind of predictability isn’t a good thing.

Site visitors know that these locations often contain ads instead of the content they want to see. So, many automatically ignore the ads.

Eyetracking studies show that people tend to use a few different standard patterns to view content online. But no matter how they scan the page, most pay very little attention to banner ads.

They Contribute to Ad Fatigue

In addition to sharing similar locations, many banner ads include the same paid content. After all, many sites pull from the same ad inventory.

For example, I saw this ad while reading an Investopedia article:

And then I saw it again when checking out a Newsweek article:

This leads to ad fatigue, which happens when people see the same ads over and over. After repeated exposure, they simply tune out the ad.

As people get tired of seeing your ads, your CTR and conversion rate tends to plummet.

They Aren’t Relevant to the Audience

Display ads can lead to clicks and conversions if they have an offer that’s relevant to the audience.

The problem with banner ads?

They often use static creatives and basic audience parameters, targeting visitors based on demographics or topics. As a result, they’re often irrelevant — which causes site visitors to ignore ads.

The ad campaign that I saw across multiple sites?

It’s designed for people who file simple tax returns but haven’t done so yet. That describes a lot of people, but it definitely doesn’t align with my needs.

So, the ad is irrelevant for me, which contributes to banner blindness.

Why It’s So Important to Address Banner Blindness

Finding a solution to these often-ignored ads can benefit your business in several ways.

Increase Ad Click-Through Rates

When people stop scrolling past your banner ads, your paid content generates more impressions.

And when your ads are relevant to the audience, they’re more likely to get clicks. If your offer is solid, that increased CTR can lead to more conversions.

Boost Brand Engagement

When people see irrelevant ads repeatedly across sites, they’re likely to get annoyed. Running these ads can negatively affect your brand reputation and prevent people from becoming customers.

But when you create relevant ad campaigns that people want to see and click, you do the opposite. People are more likely to engage and end up with a positive impression of your brand.

Improve Return on Ad Spend

The more people like and engage with your ad content, the better your campaigns perform.

This means more results for your budget, which translates to a better return on ad spend (ROAS). If you’re lucky, it can help you secure more buy-in and a better budget for your campaign.

9 Ways to Prevent Banner Blindness and Improve Conversions

Use my suggestions to combat banner blindness and get better results from your ad campaigns.

1. Test New Ad Placements

Just because banner ads traditionally appear at the top of the page or in the right sidebar doesn’t mean they always have to display in these locations.

Instead, work with publishers and ad networks that insert ads elsewhere. Like in the middle of the page.

For example, this PC Mag article on online privacy tools includes a Bitdefender banner ad directly below an organic content section that covers the software company’s security tools.

Not only does it switch up the standard banner ad placement, but it also appears in a particularly relevant spot on the page.

2. Aim for Fewer Ads on the Page

Sure, sites that max out ad placements create more opportunities to drive clicks and conversions. But this can seriously compromise the user experience for site visitors.

While ad overwhelm can certainly be a problem for desktop users, it tends to create a particularly bad experience for mobile users.

When mobile ads pop up at the top, middle, and bottom of the page, they easily take over the entire screen. Which look spammy and prevents visitors from accessing the content they want to see.

Like this mobile site that displays multiple video ads at once, including one that takes up the full screen.

Be selective about the ad networks you use and the sites where you place ads. Consider working with publishers directly to place ads on their sites. And opt out of placing ads on sites that have a poor user experience.

3. Exchange Banner Ads for Native Ads

If site visitors are skipping over your paid content because it looks like an ad, try another format.

Native advertising is an ad format that blends right into the content. Because it has a more organic appearance, site visitors are less likely to skim right past it.

Investopedia does native ads well. This article on setting financial goals includes a relevant ad right in the middle of a section:

And this article on using your first paycheck has a native ad at the very end of the article. It acts as a sort of bonus conclusion that gives readers an additional next step:

Note that both native ads include a clear disclosure. This “Sponsored” or “Advertisement” disclosure is essential for native ads and helps earn the audience’s trust.

To get started with native ads, look beyond platforms like Google Ads and try networks like Taboola or Outbrain.

4. Improve Your Ad Creatives

Poorly designed ads can cost you impressions and clicks. So can using the same tired designs and animations that many other banner ads use.

Avoid banner blindness by developing creatives that stop the scroll. 

For example, this Apple TV carousel ad automatically cycles through a series of cards, each with an eye-catching creative:

And this Max banner ad includes an embedded video that plays a short trailer:

Of course, both of these ads have the added benefit of including easily recognizable actors.

Even if your ad budget doesn’t allow for public figures, you can still design strong creatives.

A/B test different concepts and monitor the CTRs closely. Then, continue to iterate on the top-performing version until you have a winning ad design.

5. Try Pre-Roll Video Ads

Sometimes the most effective ad placements obscure organic content — at least for a few seconds. Pre-roll ads are short video ads that display before organic video content.

Like this e.l.f. ad that appears on a Pinch of Yum recipe page:

If visitors want to see the recipe video, they have to watch the 15-second cosmetics ad first.

You can easily test pre-roll ads by setting up a YouTube ad campaign and running in-stream ads. Check your placement metrics to see which sites deliver the best results.

6. Make Ads Interactive

Instead of just inviting potential customers to watch your ads, invite them to interact. Create ads that adapt based on user behavior.

For example, this Ford ad invites readers to scroll through and browse the available vehicle offers:

And this Hims ad shifts as visitors scroll:

As site visitors navigate down the page, the content in the ad scrolls at the same time. It reveals one benefit of the advertised product at a time, creating a more engaging experience for visitors.

7. Personalize Ads for Your Audience

No matter which format you use or interactive element you include, it’s important to prioritize relevance.

For example, a person browsing a recipe blog might not be actively thinking about buying a car or dealing with hair loss. But they’re almost definitely thinking about cooking and baking.

This Smitten Kitchen post includes a relevant display ad for a Chrome extension that prints recipes:

Aligning ads with website content is just one way to add relevance. You can also tailor the ad copy to the audience you want to target.

For example, this Window Nation Pro ad mentions a local area in the headline. This touch of personalization makes it instantly relevant to readers.

8. Rework Your Headlines and Calls to Action

Creatives often stop the scroll. But ad copy is just as important for connecting with customers and getting clicks.

Try to avoid unclear language and generic statements. Instead, zoom in on what matters to your target audience.

Like this Factor banner ad that targets people looking for high-protein meals:

And this animated Amazon Pharmacy ad that speaks to people who are sick and tired of waiting in long pharmacy lines:

9. Fine-Tune Your Audience Targeting

The more you test display or native ad campaigns, the more data you collect. Monitor campaign results to better understand which audience segments respond positively to your ads.

Then, adjust the targeting to reach your ideal audience based on factors like their interests, website keywords, content topics, or video placements.

But keep in mind that showing your target audience the same ad over and over probably won’t give you the results you want.

Set a frequency cap to limit the number of times each person can see a specific ad. Then, keep testing new ad headlines and creatives for your target audience.

Conclusion

Banner blindness can easily destroy your impressions, CTRs, and conversions. If you’re dealing with this common issue, you might wonder if it’s even worth running display ads.

But when you’re willing to experiment with new formats, networks, and publishers, you can overcome this type of ad blindness and make banner ads an essential part of your ad strategy.