Banner blindness — is the tendency of people to overlook ads on websites. The eye automatically skips banners on the sides and at the top of a page, brightly colored blocks and pop-up windows. A person may look directly at a banner and not remember what was on it.
The term emerged in the late 1990s, when researchers noticed that people didn't look at banners, even when they were bright and flashing.
Why it happens
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People visit a website looking for something specific, and their brains filter out everything irrelevant.
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There are too many banners everywhere, so people get used to them.
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Intrusive ads are annoying, so people start deliberately ignoring them.
Banner blindness in traffic arbitrage
Because of banner blindness, regular banners receive few clicks. That's why affiliate marketers create ad creatives that don't look like typical advertising:
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videos that look like they were filmed by an ordinary person on a phone;
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native advertising that looks like part of the website: an article, news story or curated list;
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teasers — small blocks with an image and an intriguing headline;
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in-page push ads that resemble regular notifications.
Banner blindness vs. ad creative fatigue — what's the difference?
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Banner blindness — people don't notice anything that looks like advertising. Clicks are low from the very first day, so you need to change your overall approach to ad creatives.
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Ad creative fatigue — people have already seen the same ad many times, and it stops working. Initially, the ad received clicks, but their number gradually decreases. In this case, simply replacing the creative with a new one can help.
