Think eBiz; thoughts on eBusiness

The Cure for Banner Blindness. MVT Testing

Are your online media ads suffering from Banner Blindness? According to an eye-tracking study conducted by the Nielsen/Norman Group, most people are ignoring your banner advertisements. No matter how splashy, bright or exciting they may appear, people are not looking - and therefor not clicking. In fact, click rates on banner media have be steadily decreasing.

"Banner blindness means Internet users focus on the content on a page and ignore the advertisements."

Don't despair, banner ads still remain an effective channel, just more challenging. Keeping things simple is one cure, as text ad's tend to outperform graphical ones.

Kara Pernice Coyne (Nielsen Norman Group Director of Research) said graphical ads with text and contrasting colors, like white text on red, is less likely to be disregarded. "They're looking at them if they're text," she said. "I hate to sound boring, but [it is best] if you can make sure your ad is something simple, text or a recognized logo, and it needs to be relevant to the page."

We at Think-ebiz believe that this is a clear case for MVT testing; a strategy for uncovering what triggers  what motivates a coveted click - rather than ignore - your online advertisement. What can overcome banner blindness, in terms of motivating the click through behavior? Is it the color, the image or lack of an image, is it a Flash based motion or simplistic text? Is it an strong message or a compelling call to action? Is it a great offer? MVT, multi-variable testing is the key to unlocking this knowledge, the insights that lead to a higher click through rate...  and thus a possible cure for the banner blindness affliction.

Are your online media ads suffering from Banner Blindness? According to an eye-tracking study conducted by the Nielsen/Norman Group, most people are ignoring your banner advertisements. No matter how splashy, bright or exciting they may appear, people are not looking - and therefor not clicking. In fact, click rates on banner media have be steadily decreasing.

"Banner blindness means Internet users focus on the content on a page and ignore the advertisements."

Don't despair, banner ads still remain an effective channel, just more challenging. Keeping things simple is one cure, as text ad's tend to outperform graphical ones.

Kara Pernice Coyne (Nielsen Norman Group Director of Research) said graphical ads with text and contrasting colors, like white text on red, is less likely to be disregarded. "They're looking at them if they're text," she said. "I hate to sound boring, but [it is best] if you can make sure your ad is something simple, text or a recognized logo, and it needs to be relevant to the page."

We at Think-ebiz believe that this is a clear case for MVT testing; a strategy for uncovering what triggers  what motivates a coveted click - rather than ignore - your online advertisement. What can overcome banner blindness, in terms of motivating the click through behavior? Is it the color, the image or lack of an image, is it a Flash based motion or simplistic text? Is it an strong message or a compelling call to action? Is it a great offer? MVT, multi-variable testing is the key to unlocking this knowledge, the insights that lead to a higher click through rate...  and thus a possible cure for the banner blindness affliction.

MVT and Online Advertising

Every advertiser tests - of course they do. However, are they testing effectively?

When an advertiser launches an online media campaign they will monitor their impressions, click throughs, and ultimately conversions - but do they really understand the triggers of success? The behavior of the consumer? Often the answer is no - however they can claim success by reaching their cost-per-acquisition (CPA) targets while maintaining an acceptable ad spend budget (measured by cost-per-millions impressions -CPM) . We believe advertisers can do better - much better by leveraging multi-variant (sometimes called multi-variable) testing - or MVT.

An outlandish claim by the authors of Breakthrough Business Results with MVT, Charles Holland; "...MVT is the greatest business improvement methodology ever devised"

What is MVT? It is the structured ability to test many different variables all at the same time in order to uncover the greatest impacts to your business. In it's very simplest terms - do consumers click your banner because of a Free Shipping or 20% off? Now factor in other key variables:

Aesthetics; does a green banner do better than a red one, when advertising DVD's? What about Plasma Televisions?

Message; are consumers more apt to click on a strong compelling message or one that is softer, easier (maybe less direct)?

Offer; as we noted above, does free shipping attract more attention than a percent-off offer?

Call to Action; What drives the click behavior? --> Buy Now? Learn More? Take advantage of this offer today? What are you waiting for?

And then there are the use of images, banner types (flash, rich media, video, static) and the banner size.

Now test all of these factors simultaneously! Welcome to MVT, a powerful way of learning more about your consumers and the drivers of online success - more and better leads/sales. According to Forbes, "If you haven't yet applied multivariable testing to your business, get moving.".

Consider leveraging MVT as a means of helping your business deliver more and better conversions, yielding a higher ROI, while lowering your CPA - for your current level of ad spend budget... effectively! MVT offers "real-time data analytics and insights" into consumer clicking and buying behaviors (tm:O3performance). Some MVT vendors include Optimost, Offermatica, 1+X (previously known as Poindexter), SiteSpect and others.

Every advertiser tests - of course they do. However, are they testing effectively?

When an advertiser launches an online media campaign they will monitor their impressions, click throughs, and ultimately conversions - but do they really understand the triggers of success? The behavior of the consumer? Often the answer is no - however they can claim success by reaching their cost-per-acquisition (CPA) targets while maintaining an acceptable ad spend budget (measured by cost-per-millions impressions -CPM) . We believe advertisers can do better - much better by leveraging multi-variant (sometimes called multi-variable) testing - or MVT.

An outlandish claim by the authors of Breakthrough Business Results with MVT, Charles Holland; "...MVT is the greatest business improvement methodology ever devised"

What is MVT? It is the structured ability to test many different variables all at the same time in order to uncover the greatest impacts to your business. In it's very simplest terms - do consumers click your banner because of a Free Shipping or 20% off? Now factor in other key variables:

Aesthetics; does a green banner do better than a red one, when advertising DVD's? What about Plasma Televisions?

Message; are consumers more apt to click on a strong compelling message or one that is softer, easier (maybe less direct)?

Offer; as we noted above, does free shipping attract more attention than a percent-off offer?

Call to Action; What drives the click behavior? --> Buy Now? Learn More? Take advantage of this offer today? What are you waiting for?

And then there are the use of images, banner types (flash, rich media, video, static) and the banner size.

Now test all of these factors simultaneously! Welcome to MVT, a powerful way of learning more about your consumers and the drivers of online success - more and better leads/sales. According to Forbes, "If you haven't yet applied multivariable testing to your business, get moving.".

Consider leveraging MVT as a means of helping your business deliver more and better conversions, yielding a higher ROI, while lowering your CPA - for your current level of ad spend budget... effectively! MVT offers "real-time data analytics and insights" into consumer clicking and buying behaviors (tm:O3performance). Some MVT vendors include Optimost, Offermatica, 1+X (previously known as Poindexter), SiteSpect and others.

Stephen Harris as Max Headroom.

Wow - they made me into a Oddcast Avatar star. This innovative technology is being used more and more, as broadband expands and the need to personalize increases. Clients including Cendant, Washington Mutual, L'Oréal, even Stephen King leverage Oddcast in their promotions and customer touch points. Be creative and put an Avatar face on your messaging. I want to thank my friends at Larkin/Volpatt and Oddcast for this rendering...  what do you think? Handsome devil, eh!