Something called “Online Ad Fatigue” is one of the newer things being studied in marketing research. It used to be that you had about 6 seconds to capture a visitor’s attention when she hit your website, but that time has diminished significantly to about .2 seconds. That’s not a typo – a FRACTION of a second to sell the visitor is all you’ve got.
So, internet marketers designed ways to catch visitor’s attention quickly and engage more senses than only the eyes…..which in Internet marketing means sound, right? (Hard to touch, taste, or smell an Internet ad!) Visitors don’t react well to some of these techniques, in fact my bet is that YOU will tend to click away from them, too. When someone starts suffering Online Ad Fatigue she will get frustrated and click away, leaving you no chance to turn that visitor into a customer.
Here are the top 6 causes of Online Ad Fatigue.
- Ads that expand on the page and cover up what you are trying to read
- Ads that have a close or skip button designed to be hard to find.
- Automatic pop-ups
- Ads that automatically open if you scroll over them
- Animated ads that play automatically without your starting them yourself
- Ads that play music or have loud soundtracks.
Marketers use these techniques in a desperate effort to “catch eyeballs.” And here’s where the rub comes in for me. If you need a gimmick to sell your product or service you’ve got one of two things going, in my opinion.
- What you are offering is something nobody wants.
- You are a lazy marketer, relying on irritating gimmicks rather than good copywriting and knowing what serves your market.
Focus your Internet advertising in such a way that it is quick, visually appealing, tells immediately the problem you solve, and offers clear, simple calls to action. Those are what will gain you customers, keeping a visitor on your page without causing Online Ad Fatigue.
(c) Sue Painter
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