For those of you that browse the web regularly, there is absolutely no doubt that at some point you have come across some of those big, obtrusive advertisements that take over your whole web page. If you have a website that you market with ads quite a lot, then you may have even paid to have your company marketed in this way, believing that it is the best way to get your business noticed.
For a long time, this form of advertising has been said to be the best way of getting your company noticed, however, a recent study has found that these targeted ads are actually no more effective than ordinary banner ads.
A recent study at the University of Toronto examined more than 2,800 web ads campaigns 0on a variety of different websites. They then proceeded to survey around 900 people for each campaign that they were studying.
The study found some interesting results, one of which was that although matching advertising to the content that surrounds it or increasing the obstructivesness of the ad is proven to be an effective way of getting people’s attention, if you actually mix the two methods, then it actually has a negative effect on the effectiveness of the ad.
The study also proved that even targeted ads that are obstructive are only 0.3% more likely to lead people to buy a product than having a simple banner ad, which is a shock to most internet marketers as the banner ad is said to be one of the least effective forms of internet marketing.
