Ad Effectiveness Not All About Size

Recent commentary suggests the placement and shape of online ads may be more important than size. This calls into question the strategy of using bigger, more intrusive ads on web pages to gain awareness and create impact.

In an Ad Age Digital article, Ken Mallon of Dynamic Logic says a recent study conducted by the ad effectiveness measurement firm indicated it was a modest 180-pixel by 150-pixel rectangular ad that performed best. While Mallon admits Dynamic Logic hasn’t done enough research on the relatively new “giant” ads, he says “…among the limited range, it looks like where they’re located on the page and their shape is more important than size.”

As the Ad Age article suggests, Mallon’s comments represent only one aspect of what may be the continuing fall in effectiveness of online ads that are too big or too intrusive. A June 2009 LinkedIn Research/Harris Poll found (pdf) that consumers were getting increasingly frustrated with certain types of online ads. For example, 80 percent of consumer respondents found ads that expand on the page and cover the content they are trying to read to be “very frustrating,” while 12 percent found them “somewhat frustrating.”

That’s a piss-off factor of over 90 percent! About the same percentage, shy a few points, found that ads where consumers can’t find the close/skip button, and ads that automatically pop up, were also “very frustrating.”

Mallon told Ad Age that he questions the effectiveness of old standbys such as skyscraper and leaderboard ads as well because, he says, consumers have developed “banner blindness.” Rectangular ads may be more effective because they are close to or even integrated into the content.

Dynamic Logic believes ads bordering content are least effective, and that simple Flash is an overused, weak format. Real media with video is preferable. The firm suggests changing ad placement from page to page so consumers don’t get used to finding them in the same place.

The current discussion reminds me of the old days when magazines would often find that ads mimicking editorial content, or ads with long, engaging copy, would outperform traditional display ads. Whether in print or online, ads are most effective when they intrigue, inform, and entertain rather than annoy and frustrate the consumer. This is why simple online text ads, and smaller display ads that are well-integrated with content, may ultimately be the most effective advertising of all.

About Barry Silverstein

Barry Silverstein is a freelance writer/marketing consultant. In addition to writing for ReveNews, he is a contributing writer to Brandchannel.com, the world’s leading online branding forum. He is the author of three marketing books, The Breakaway Brand (co-author, McGraw-Hill, 2005), Business-to-Business Internet Marketing (Maximum Press, 2003) and Internet Marketing for Technology Companies (Maximum Press, 2003). Barry ran his own Internet and direct marketing agency for twenty years. You can find Barry on Twitter @bdsilv.

Website: http://www.barrysilverstein.com