People unconsciously ignore ads, not because they arent interested in the products or services that are being offered, but a natural instinct to focus on the material theyre reading and block out distractions. Remember: theyre on the web to look for information. That can be a particular song they want to download, an article on their favorite celebrity, or a chicken recipe they can cook for dinner. Theyre concentrating on that issue, and their minds are quickly filtering out whatever seems to intrude on that search. That includes the background noise of the room they happen to be surfing in, and the visual noise on the web page.
Ads are said to be visual noise, and ironically, the larger (and more obvious) the ad, the more likely itll be ignored. That seems to go against all instincts of advertisingbigger should be better, right? That may work on a highway, when a looming billboard will catch your either whether you plan to look or not, but on the Internet, there are just too many ads. As a gut-reaction, the eye skips over anything that looks like the traditional advertising banners, regardless of the text contained in them. Thats why if you look at the studies, 468 x 60...