Twenty years ago, when display banners were in their infancy, marketers placed ads by going directly through website owners to buy inventory space on their web pages. The ads came in all shapes and sizes, and most generated click-through rates (CTR) ranging between 50 percent and 90 percent. Everyone was eager to click on a banner. Fast-forward to 2018, and you’re lucky if 10 out of every 10,000 people who see a display ad clicks on it. People have become “banner blind” and generally distrust them, so fewer and fewer people click on them. (more…)