Balancing Ad Space with Content in Wireframes

Posted Feb 9, 2011 // 1 comments

We’ve all been to a website that’s overrun with advertising. Performance on these tends to be abysmal -- the slow loading time is mostly thanks to all those jumping, flashing, talking, moving, animated sidebars, headers, footers, and mid-page graphics screaming for our attention.

And all we wanted was to read some content.

We won’t fully escape the barrage of online advertising anytime soon, but fortunately when we’re designing websites, we can strategically place ads to both attract more eyeballs that encourage conversation *and* keep the user happy.

How? Well, as with most things in life -- and certainly on the web -- it’s all about balance.

After all, a great outcome to online advertising is generating revenue for the placer and the placee -- a result that often isn’t accomplished without some foresight.

So when we’re wireframing -- literally in the initial stages of planning a website design -- we aim to complement content with ad space. In doing so, we’re maximizing the profit potential by creating a comfortable visual balance, and we’re optimizing the user experience to make the sought-after content a priority. Both of these outcomes prime users for increased conversions.

Here are some challenges and solutions for advertising-based websites:

Clients willing to create a web design that accommodates advertising typically want a leaderboard (banner) ad across the top so s/he can charge more money for it. And while this is both an industry standard and user-accepted reality, the real estate of the main body of content always suffers. Ultimately, users are most likely coming for that content -- not the huge ad above it. Editors lose valuable real estate to make an "instant impact" above the fold (of course, not all important page content HAS to be above the fold, but a bare minimum does need to be in order for the page to present well aesthetically on smaller screens).

So, what we might suggest in the wireframe to provide the client with a prominent ad space for revenue generation AND a prioritization of the content itself is to explore smaller squares and rectangles in the periphery of the layout. These can all be “above the fold” on the majority of monitors (at least a 300x250 which is the most common/successful ad size) and, together, generate the same amount of revenue as one gigantic real estate hog across the top of the page.

Also, more and more publishers are exploring the amazing tools out there that promote a semantic web. You’ve probably seen these already when you’re browsing online and notice that ads for things you actually want are displaying in the sidebar.

So, to account for this increasingly semantic web pushing the user relevant advertising content, we consider how ad space can be used within the content areas themselves. For example, maybe an article on outdoor camping gear could benefit from having a complementary ad spot within the main content area that accommodates a logo. And maybe that logo is for an online camp gear store.

In this example, the content pulls the user to the page, and then relevant ad spot creates a timely “next step” for the user. And by balancing this sort of an approach -- namely, to complement content with related advertising rather than just adding more ad space generally -- you’re actually creating a more cohesive browsing experience that promotes purchasing decisions.