According to a new report by the Usability Company, together with the firm Eyetracker, which monitors the way people look at web pages, people quickly learn where advertisements appear on sites, and subsequently ignored those areas when browsing further areas.
It also found that ads positioned within the body of the site had a far greater probability of being recalled, and that people remembered animated ads better than static ones.
Marty Carroll, director of the Usability Company, said: "The research suggests that a single ad format is unlikely to be sufficient. Web users very quickly become accustomed to the way in which ads are served, and cease to register them mentally.
"With this new method of research being able to inform on the most effective size, position and shape of online adverts, there's a strong case for testing advertising creatives on users, as there's no point using ads that will be ignored from the outset."
Eyetracker compiled the report by monitoring the eye movements of participants who were looking at three well-known newspaper websites: , and .
Other findings revealed that eyes are more likely to fix on a single line of text than a block, suggesting users prefer to scan rather than read on the net; and that people expect a site's main navigation bar to appear on the left-hand side of the page.
The full version of the report, which includes illustrations and data analysis, is available at website.
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