The Unclickables: why online advertising is a thankless task for copywriters
‘What’s on the schedule today?’ I ask cheerfully as I stroll through the door of my office and surround myself with colleagues who I regard with both the deepest professional respect and genuine human warmth.
‘Online banner ads’ they reply, the villainous sh*ts. Then I plunge a pencil so deep into my eye that I am able to write ‘kill me now’ on the inside of my own skull.
Banner ads are the copywriting equivalent of having Weetabix for tea. It’s not the drabbest possible thing that could happen to you but, when pressed, you find it hard to suggest something blander.
If I was feeling generous I would describe my feelings towards online display ads as sceptical. Trawl through the mountain of statistics on offer and you can estimate that the average display ad yields anywhere between 0.1% and 0.5% click through.
A wonderful comparison was made by Solve Media who suggested that an individual was more likely to complete Navy SEAL training or survive a plane crash than click through on an online advert.
The truth is that many people regard them as nothing more than an annoyance.
The fundamental flaw of online display ads is that their very nature demands that they compete with the content on the page. There are some rather shifty practices that see online ads designed to appear like they are actually legitimate content. This does not reflect well on the publishers who agree to display these ads ‘by stealth’ and will undoubtedly irritate a user who has clicked on a link only to find out they are being sold something.
But from a copywriting point of view, online ads are a lot like trying to thrash a tiger shark to death with a piece of wet string.
I have seen many online ads with eloquent and compelling copy, messages that a writer undoubtedly has thoughtfully crafted. But I only even notice these ads through an active professional curiosity.
The average internet user is served thousands of display ads every month. They have even transcended the status of irritant and are now firmly established as wallpaper. Broadly speaking, display ads have successfully disengaged a vast segment of the online audience.
As such, even the finest copy is likely to be wilfully ignored. And that is not to say it is a space exclusively occupied by excellent copywriting. The kind of online adverts that ask you to, oh I don’t know, throw a duck into the gaping jaws of a killer whale for a chance to win an iPad are beneath contempt.
Structure is another barrier to the copywriter. A message that flows neatly and tightly in a banner advert will clutter along inelegantly in a skyscraper. And the fact that some display ads offer you a space of 140 x 60 pixels leaves most of us weeping with anger and regret as we try to remember every two letter word we know.
I don’t doubt that many brands and businesses see a positive return from display advertising. Retargeting, or remarketing, is a proven way to push your message in front of targeted individuals after they have bounced from your site.
But nevertheless, for a copywriter the challenge is huge, the restrictions are great and the rewards are questionable.
Yet dutiful, uncomplaining souls that we are, we simply pull the HB pencil from our hypothalamus, sigh deeply and do what we’re told.
Follow Andrew on Twitter @Boultini
Andrew Boulton is a copywriter at the Together Agency. Tonight he will be having Weetabix for tea.