Which Ads Work Best In Tourism Marketing

Advertising through banners costs more than advertising through text ads but that doesn't make it any more effective. On the contrary, there is only one instance when the conditions are right for banner ads to really work.

Why our mind ignores banners

We cannot usually pay attention to more than one thing at a time so when we visit a page with graphics and banners there is a good chance we'll not even notice them because we're too busy looking at the text.

When there are many graphics and banners on the page, the so called ad-blindness shield is automatically turned on. This usually happens when we are bombarded with visual messages that we associate with selling. Our head filters them out to relieve the stress of having to make a "Where to go next" choice.

We then focus our entire attention to skim through the text on the page and look for what we want. The extensive use of banners over the last 5-6 years has led people to subconsciously ignore virtually all graphics and banners. This happens because most of us associate them with selling.

Using banners to advertise a tourism business is ineffective because they work best for tangible products where buyers need a visual incentive. While the Scottish scenery may be one of the best in the world, there are other ways to use it for marketing. See my article Photos as Free Information.

Why our mind is open to text ads

We associate graphics with selling and text with information. We are more inclined to read short bits of text than paying attention to a banner. At the same time, 2-3 short lines of text are an attractive mental break from reading a page full of paragraphs. A text ad saying:

is far more effective and informative than a banner could ever be. This trend is supported by market data showing that text ads attract far more clicks than banners do and yield, therefore, better results.

The conditions necessary for a banner to work

While banners are generally less effective than text ads, one banner can prove to a good choice in instances where:

• It is aimed at people who are ready to purchase. In such cases, banners should promote a special offer, rate or special event in order to entice the prospect to complete the purchase.
• The banner is the only focus point on that page. When people look at the page, the single banner immediately catches their eye. Its effectiveness depends largely on whether the website design is eye-catchy or not. The more graphics are on the page trying to get our attention, the more we consider all images as background noise and ignore them.
• The banner is placed in the lower two thirds of the visible screen. The top part of the screen is usually preceived as being reserved for pictures and graphics that are part of the design. We've learned that these seldom carry any useful information.