<b>Deep dive: hero images cost attention they rarely earn back</b>

<b>Deep dive: hero images cost attention they rarely earn back</b>

The default landing-page hero is a big stock photo. Eye-tracking research has a consistent and uncomfortable finding: decorative images get ignored, and worse, they displace the elements that actually convert.

NN/g's image studies distinguish two categories. Content images — a real product, a real result, a real screenshot — get fixated on heavily; users actively study them for information. Decorative images — smiling stock models, abstract gradients, "feeling" photos — get systematically skipped. In one study, users looked right past a large generic hero photo to read the text beside it. The image consumed prime above-fold real estate and returned nothing.

The mechanism is the same foraging logic: the eye allocates attention by expected information value, and it learns fast that decorative imagery carries none. After years of stock photography, users banner-blind it the way they banner-blind ads.

There's a second cost specific to faces. Faces are attention magnets (we're wired to find them), and gaze direction propagates — eye-tracking shows visitors follow the model's gaze. A hero model looking <i>at the camera</i> pulls attention to the face and holds it there; a model looking <i>toward your headline or form</i> redirects it. So a decorative face doesn't just waste space, it can actively steal attention from your CTA.

For affiliate landers: replace the mood-shot hero with a content image that <i>proves</i> something — a dashboard with real numbers, the actual offer, a genuine result. If you must use a person, point their gaze at your headline or button. A hero should earn its pixels by carrying information, not vibe.

<b>TL;DR</b>
— Eye-tracking shows decorative/stock hero images get systematically skipped while consuming prime above-fold space.
— Content images (real products, dashboards, results) get studied; the eye allocates attention by expected information value.
— Faces magnetize attention and gaze propagates — a model staring at the camera steals focus; point gaze at your headline or CTA, or use a content image instead.