In Jacob Neilsen’s recent ‘banner blindness‘ usability report, he highlights that users view web pages in an F shape and that ‘plain text, faces and cleavage’ are much more successful at attracting eyeballs than banners.

I use a combination of banner, skyscraper, micro bar and text on my pages to get the message across.

I use the banner as a tool for a legitimate call to action. As I run a discount code site, I may attract visitors who have already visited the merchants site or are intending to anyway. So in my 4* steps to use a code, I include ‘click the promotional banner’ so that my affiliate link is tracked.

Some merchants and DavidZHark don’t approve of these sales but then it’s not as if I am framing the merchants site or opening another new window just so I can ensure a cookie is served.

The banner also reinforces the merchants brand and I can also show that the creatives and text used also serve to create new customers for merchants.

Looking through some recent Webgains sales statistics, I can show that I can create sales for other related merchants by using micro banners.

At the foot of my merchant pages I include a series of 88×31 pixel sized creatives for related merchants. Each of these badges is its own php file which I include with a bit of descriptive text, such as “Tightsplease 5% Off Code Exclusive.”

On 16th August a user was viewing the BeCheeky page and spotted the advert for Tightsplease on the same page. Within two minutes they then clicked on the 468×60 pixel size banner for Tightsplease and made a £17.99 purchase.

More recently a visitor of the Healthy and Essential page saw an advert for Silverwellbeing, which had no accompanying promotional text and within five minutes spent £35.

So banners can work if they’re used as part of the content and they can be used to cross sell related merchants.

* As a trained journalist I have been told to write four instead of 4 but Jacob’s report on eye tracking data says numerals are better for catching the user eye for online readers. I’m not sure it’s a style I can get used to.