It’s inevitable: The more we see something, the more we tend to ignore it. Banner ads have been a part of the web browsing experience since the turn of the century. They’re
familiar now, and with that familiarity has come “banner blindness,” the tendency to pass by banner advertising without clicking on or even consciously registering it. As advertising costs rise, it’s more important than ever to use ad networks intelligently and make the most of advertising investments by breaking through ad blindness.

Make It Relevant

The best way B2B companies can connect with their audiences is by serving relevant banner ads. Customization and contextualization to deliver the right ad to the right customer at the right time can make a dramatic impact. Data management platforms, or DMPs, allow users access to huge volumes of information that then form the basis for highly targeted, relevant campaigns.

You see this technology in action every time you shop on major e-commerce platforms that serve a selection of purchases other shoppers bought or similar search items. Targeted advertising within the ad network pinpoints audience segments to which it’s relevant and appears everywhere your leads travel, fixing your brand firmly in their minds even if they aren’t currently browsing your site.

Using Demographic and Behavioral Cues

Your advertising not only follows your leads wherever they travel on the internet, but it can also change to reflect your potential customers’ needs specifically. With the power of an extensive DMP and marketing automation software to design customizable ads, you’re able to address your audience personally. Ads that focus on a geographical location, for example, might feature your state or city name prominently in the banner. If job title and industry are a primary segmentation elements for this campaign, they take pride of place within the ad.

We’re hard-wired to notice environmental cues that relate to our current situation. That’s why you’re aware of every restaurant sign you pass when you’re hungry but pay little attention to them after you’ve eaten. Behavioral cues, including details about where your prospects have recently visited and what they’ve seen of your content in the past, tell you a great deal about how to cut through banner blindness. Your leads are hungry for something, and your DMP can tell you what it is.

Killer Creative

Even with state-of-the-art tracking, high relevance, and customized content, you still need to hold your audience’s attention. Here’s where your creative team needs to live up to its name and come up with compelling ads that reward leads for giving them a look or a click. Humor, knowledge, insight into who you are as a company – whatever you choose, it needs to be something more than the static creative your leads might have seen 15 years ago. Mobile-friendly animated or interactive graphics with targeted content earn your audience’s attention. Making ads fit anything from the user’s browsing habits to the local weather forecast that day help you keep their interest long enough to make a lasting impression.