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Eye-Tracking Proves Ad Placement Matters
By Reshma Kumar at April 09, 2008 2 CommentsThe placement of an ad on a web page determines the propensity of it being viewed by users. This, according to a study conducted by Marketing Sherpa using eye-tracking software to track users’ viewership of ads above and below the fold. The study found that 75% of users saw ads above the fold. However, only 60% of the ads above the fold were seen by users.
This is not surprising as most users’ initial view of a page is above the fold and anything below it requires the user to take the action i.e scroll. And unless there is some visual indicator like unfinished text to indicate that there is more below the fold or the content is compelling enough for them to want to scroll down for more, they are unlikely to scroll. Even if an ad is above the fold, the study showed that it can be missed altogether. This can be attributed to banner blindness where users recognize an ad for what it is and ignore it altogether, or the treatment or amount of negative spacing around an ad can affect the noise level of an ad, or the positioning of an ad even above the fold can affect its viewership. For instance, users have been trained that anything in the right column is usually marketing fluff so they ignore it altogether.
75% of users saw ads above the fold. However, only 60% of the ads above the fold were seen by users.
But what about ads that start above the fold and continue below it like skyscrapers?! My guess is that if the meat of the ad content is contained in the top part of the ad which is above the fold, that might be okay even if the call to action falls below the fold as most display ads are images which are completely linked so the user could click anywhere. However, I think the idea is really to keep it all above the fold.
The opportunity cost of pushing ads below the fold can be high. Already premuim placement such as skyscrapers and leaderboards have a higher CPM and recent reports indicate that display ads are losing out to search advertising. So, it seems that if you wish to maximize your ROI on ads, be sure to place them strategically above the fold.
Labels: usability 2.0, user experience
2 Comments
OK, but the fold varies depending on screen resolution and amount of space itself within the browser that isn’t cluttered by all sorts of toolbars.
Most users tend to set their monitor resolution to 1024 x 768 but a site owner would need to check their site analytics to determine what resolution their users are using. You can’t control how many toolbars, etc. people enable but if you go with the least common denominator, it’s a pretty safe bet that they will have the browser toolbar, standard buttons, and address bar.