Google Display Network Ads (formerly Content Ads) Strategies Based on Eye Tracking Research
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010An eye tracking study for AdSense ads by Tobii suggests that more information is remembered when it has a high contrast color. “Increased awareness can lead to higher recall of the ad, thereby, helping build the brand of advertiser which can increase clicks.”
This is a little confusing because if people are remembering the ad, presumably they will later come in directly – without clicking – since they won’t be looking at the ad anymore.
This result is seemingly contradicted by an eye tracking study from Jakob Nielsen. Their conclusion is that:
“Users almost never look at anything that looks like an advertisement, whether or not it’s actually an ad.”
That would suggest that blending into the site is better than having a high contrasting color. It is true that the first study was referring to memory and not what people look at, but if they don’t look at the ad, it will reduce the chances of recall.
Sample ads Google uses as examples. Note that none of them would blend into a typical website.
So what are our recommendations? Test!
Your circumstances can be different than a particular study or a general trend. We recently tested ads which blend in against ads which have more contrast. Surprisingly, the ads which had more contrast did much better with clickthroughs.
