Pop-ups, PPC ads, and mandatory five-second ad increments in videos are so over saturated in the market today that most consumers don’t even bat an eye. In fact, studies have shown that the average Internet user can often scroll past pages of ads and not tell you what a single one was for. That is why optimizing ads for declining attention spans is very important for your business to stand out from all the noise.
You’re probably thinking, “Well, what’s the point of ads if they’re not being seen?”
You’re not wrong.
Without visibility, ads are wasted. When your marketing efforts are wasted, so is your budget and your time, not to mention all of the effort that you put into the campaigns. How, then, can you change the strategy so that your ads are optimized for the no-attention-span generation that makes up the bulk of Internet users? Keep reading to find out what you need to know
Get Creative, But Keep It Simple
Too often, people associate “creative” with “busy”. There is such a thing as too much in marketing, and you can’t just make the loudest noise possible and hope that people listen. You have to strategically think about your product or brand and how to get the attention of your target audience. Put yourself in their shoes. What types of ads would you actually respond to, despite being inundated with more ads than useful content in today’s Internet?
Re-Target Familiar Audiences
One way to really cash in on your online marketing, especially in a time of limited attention spans, is to reach back out to users who are interested or familiar with your brand, but haven’t yet become customers. They say that it takes as many as seven times for a consumer to see a message or product before they consider buying or looking into an offer. Therefore, re-marketing and reaching back out to those who are already familiar is an easy way to get people’s attention quickly and garner better results.
Use Multiple Channels for Marketing
If you only have a banner ad at the top of websites, your customers are going to forget about it as quickly as they notice it. It’s not interesting and it’s repetitive to have it in the same place. There are so many channels and avenues for marketing online, including to engage those short attention spans. Take advantage of as many channels as you can to widen your target audience and make sure that you are reaching as many people as possible.
Make Sure Everything is Optimized for Mobile
There is something to be said for mobile optimization in today’s marketing world. People want quick, easy, attention-grabbing information. They don’t want their attention grabbed by incorrectly placed desktop advertising that shows up on a mobile device, covering the entire screen and nearly impossible to navigate away from. If you want to make sure that you’re getting the most of the few seconds of attention that users have, optimize everything for mobile so that your audience has an easy time seeing and choosing to follow your ads.
Get to the Point
This is one of the biggest things that you have to keep in mind when it comes to marketing to those who aren’t really paying attention. Keep your ads simple, as mentioned above, but make sure that you spell out exactly what the user is getting. If you’re having a sale, don’t write a sonnet. Just advertise what’s on sale with the savings in a way that catches people’s attention.
In the era of short attention spans, it’s all about coming up with creative ways to engage people quickly, directly, and on their terms if you want to get noticed in the online marketing world.
(Sources: Routes4media, CNBC )
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