Why do people avoid my display ads?

This phenomenon is called “Banner blindness”. It involves low CTR, ad ignorance by users and next to 0% conversion rate. Let’s try to find out why display campaigns fail:

Goal Impediment. Users are more goal oriented when they are browsing, if display ads are not relevant to them, they don’t notice them. Moreover, if display ads are distracting from content users are trying to access, users form negative attitude toward advertisers.

Ad Clutter on the Internet. Excessive amount of irrelevant display ads irritate users, as the the result they either use ad blocker, or simply ignore them.

Prior Negative Experiences. User’s negative experience can be caused by negative experience with a similar company, which led to avoidance of any similar ads.

Wrong ad placement. Advertisers should not leave everything up to Google AdWords, because the ads will end up on a wrong website. The right way to place ads on websites that match with ad’s content. It allows to prompt higher memory, better attitude toward the company and the most important higher conversion rate. Moreover, advertisers should not place ads in the middle of content, which causes negative user experience. If an ad contain article’s text, it tends to get the most attention regardless of the size and effects.

Wrong targeting. Google bots are great in discovering new pages and sites, at the same time topics and interest targeting can lead to placing display ads on irrelevant websites. Therefore, keyword targeting approach can be great. This method relies on match of keywords to relevant content. Before launching a campaign, advertisers need to know which keywords and phrases the target audience associate with your offer. If an advertiser runs a search campaign in addition to display, the report can be very handy to find the niche keywords.

Many advertisers are ignoring the power of demographic data in display campaigns. With the help of Google Analytics, advertisers can find the data about converted users, and target them across the display network.

Focusing on website traffic over conversion rate. Majority of advertisers are focusing on how much extra traffic they can send toward the website. Traffic is important, but it is crucial to remember that we are advertising to achieve a goal, not to acquire traffic. It is useless if thousand users visit a website and leave without completing a goal. Traffic in not equate to profit and revenue increase. Whenever, any campaign is created, conversion rate should be the first priority.