Motion vs. still ads

anyone have a preference?

[too much information]

I have been organizing my affiliate banners around my site and I am partial to using the ones that don't change. My reasoning is that it makes my site look too busy with all of the motion going on. But when I visit other sites I don't mind the motion quite as much.

Does anyone have any preference as far as a higher CTR with the ones that move or the ones that are static? I havn't been using them long enough to see a difference. So I am still not sure which ones to use.

(I really prefer to use Text links, but sometimes you need some color on a site.)

[Essex_boy]

Stil adverts animated drive me nuts. Flashing adverts I leave the site

[BriGuy]

TMI:

I HATE HATE HATE motion ads, and I hate ads with movement and sound even more. I dislike how many internet sites have had to resort to gimmicry to increase click-throughs. While the animated ads will likely get you a higher Click-through ratio, they're annoying as hell to me (and to other surfers, I'm sure) and they probably choke up bandwidth for anyone not using a broadband modem. I think the increased click-through you get by motion ads won't offset the dissatisfaction you get from a lot of surfers. I'd stick with non-invasive well-targeted text ads (say, from AdSense or an equivalent) instead of resorting to motion ads.

[sean]

You will no doubt get plenty of answers from people who dislike motion ads. But be careful about applying the responses to all surfers and your bottom line. (For the record, I dislike most, but not all, motion ads.) Not all motion banners are in-your-face tacky. And some actually work.

Case in point, I have a site that is primarily text links and a few functional search/select ads. The conversion rate was good with the 'plain jane' approach, but I wondered if a the site was not reaching the visually oriented surfers. So, I added a few tasteful motion buttons towards the bottom of the page.

Suddenly, the bottom of the page is earning more than the top, and these buttons are by far the best converters. Better yet, the other links and merchants were still performing. Rather than being a zero-sum game of homogenous surfers, it was more like making sure the site was hitting on all cylinders.

test, test, test

[too much information]

Thanks for the opinions. I hate the motion stuff too. It makes the page harder to read. I avoid them as much as possible, but sometimes a great content related ad only comes with motion. In that case I am choosing the one with the least motion.

Most of the time I can put up with the flashing, but if it's more than one on a page... I usually get what I need and don't go back. And I really want my visitors to come back so I try to give them what I would want.

There is just too much to think about when putting these things together!

[John_Caius]

If you have to have motion then IMHO the least offensive tend to be ones in a similar colour scheme to the site, with smooth tracking motion rather than strobe or jiggle effects. Compare the style of banner ad used by a major bank or other established company and the style used by a casino or dating website.