Okay, okay I am guilty as well pinning down the autotrader or cars.com rep in regards to “what is my click-through-ratio?” (CTR) or “I don’t know if these banners really do anything for me”, every time they wanted to make an up-sell for ”better exposure” of the brand. There was just too much doubt and not knowing in me to easily pass on these spins – until today (well, may be).

The Online Publishers Association a.k.a. “OPA” was possibly sick and tired of all these objections they heard from their clientele all over the world and decided to put an end to the discussion between as-seller and ad-buyer. The mystical entity “Banner-Ad” needed to be researched to find out if actually your consumers are taking a look at it.

To present even to OPA’s most doubtful critiques and skeptics concrete facts that Banner ads are indeed working for brands and companies, the organization tested conducted a very thorough research. The study participants had been sat in front of computers and browsing pages with embedded banner ads, randomly selected. If now the participants actually noticed and viewed these occurring ads, OPA decided to connect "these human genuia pigs" with the latest eye tracking technology. Further - additional biometric testing equipment was chosen. The biometric instruments could give the scientist of OPA indications of any emotional response by monitoring breathing and heart rate, similar to a lie-detector test pointing out negative or positive emotional responses.

THE RESULTS ARE IN

I don’t know if I need to apologize to my entire ad reps roster in the past (probably not) but the results conceived during this research opened my eyes and will change my perception how to see banner ads. Actually 96% did indeed pay attention to the upcoming ads during their browsing sessions. Intriguing was that 90% of the test participants noticed the ads right away - in less than 1 second during the page loading.

The OPA further noticed that almost all candidates were looking at the banner ad multiple times. Average number here (please sit down…) – participants had “starred” on the ads 15 times. So, how were the results showing on the “emotional involvement” on the displayed banner ads? (are you still sitting down?)

Test candidates responded to the ads almost similar as when they looked at the other parts of the pages. Even so when users glimpsed a second or third time on the ad (on average after the first 10 seconds) an elevated emotional response was noticed. When the participants were asked to grade these seen ads after the trial, the advertisements got an average of 6.3 points out of possible 9.

ALL IN ALL IT LOOKS LIKE IT IS WORKING

So it appears that OPA’s results and research discovered an important fact. Instead just focusing on the CTR outcome of banner ads and possible tracking figures (like all the prior research indicated to focus on), the OPA’s study shows us now a totally different angle.

Fiction is now Fact: An attractive banner ad will possibly still attract consumers – even so it is not always CTR what counts - it can be at least L.O.V.S – Love On First Sight.

Do you believe in it? ~~VJ, The Social Media Buzzer