Please install Flash® and turn on Javascript.
Basket Items: 0 | Total £0.00
Banner advertising is the most important form of internet advertising. Banner advertising is highly interactive, and can result in a call to action being performed immediately. Given its power to not only attract customers but also covert these visits into sales, a lot or thought needs to go into creating a banner advertisement. As with other forms of advertisements, there is no simple formula to make a good banner ad. An effective banner ad is the sum of many factors. Most advertisers arrive at the perfect banner ad by trial and error. They use software to monitor the results of a banner advertisement and depending on the analysis, seek to fill in the loopholes and arrive at an effective ad. Having said this, there are of course a number of factors that should be taken into consideration while creating a banner advertisement.
If you are planning to launch an online banner advertising campaign, you can keep the following points in mind.
Decide on the purpose of the banner advertisement: Banner advertisements perform two functions, entice potential customers to visit the publisher's website to make a purchase, and secondly, to create or strengthen brand awareness. These factors will help you decide on the text and graphics to be used in the banner, the type of banner (GIF, GIF-animated, rich media) as also which sites to host the banner advertisement.
Post banner ads on pages with related web content: Internet marketing is highly audience focussed. This is one major factor that differentiates online advertising from all other forms of advertising. Take the case of newspaper, radio, or TV advertising. People are forced to see or hear about ads about products or services they are not really interested in. Internet advertising, on the other hand, works on the principle that online ads, including banner ads, should appear to the people who are actually interested in the offering in question. Consider the example of an online store selling kids' furniture. Now, a person who wishes to buy these items, will type in this phrase in the search bar. The result page will show some sponsored links, or paid ads of companies selling kids furniture. Secondly, the results page will also list websites with content related to kids' furniture. To reach your target audience, your banner ad should be placed on web pages that deal with content related to your offering, in this case furniture for kids. This way, your banner advertisement will be read by people who are actually interested in purchasing the product. This will greatly increase the click through rate of your banner advertisement. So as a ground rule, the more related the content to the page the better the success of your banner advertisement.
Advertise your product or service rather than your website: The content of your banner should be minimal but it should give a strong message in the minimum possible words. People will read your banner advertisement if they are interested in what is being said in the message. Simply advertising your website on the banners isn't going to improve the conversion rate. You can however, mention the name of your website in the call to action, for example, for more information about the product, visit the website followed by the name of your website with the appropriate link.
Link the banner advertisement to the product page rather than the home page: This is very essential because ultimately the people will first visit your website to know more about the product and service rather than learning more about you. If they like what you offer, only then will they show interest in checking out your credibility. Therefore, it is essential that your banner advertisement link should lead to the product or service advertised in the banner rather than the home page.
Banner ads should appear on the top rather than farther down on the page: A lot of research has gone into understanding on which part of the web page is a banner ad most effective. The results clearly show that banner advertisements attract the highest attention if they are placed horizontally on top of the page or vertically on the top right side because these places attract the maximum attention. Secondly, if readers are not interested in the content given in the page they are unlikely to scroll down.
Animated banner ads are better than static ads: Banner ads should be able to grab attention and it goes without saying, 'movement' attracts more attention than something that is static. Animated banner ads have multiple frames with different images and text appearing one after the other. Apart from being more attractive, they also arouse curiosity in the readers so that they pause for a few seconds to read what is going to follow in the next frame. Given the fact that people spend more time on an animated banner than a static banner, there are more chances of the message being registered and, if not used immediately, stored for future use. There are banners that use audio visual files, however, their use should be restricted as these files slow down the page loading time and a user may just move away to another site. Ideally, the size of the file should not exceed 5000-5500 bytes.
Use relevant messages and attractive graphics: As already stated, the best banners are animated banners. However, in animated banners since the frames keep changing after every few seconds, the content should contain a strong message that is able to retain reader attention. The message should be complimented with an attractive image that gives some information about a product. For example a banner for a specific fitness equipment can have an image of a person exercising on that particular machine. Research has shown that more than the text it is the images that attract attention. It is important to point out that images should not be misleading. People who see the image form related impressions in mind that induce them to read the messages in the banner. If however the message does not connect with the image, or for the matter the landing page does not connect with what it has promised in the banner ad, it will put off the users and the clicks will not turn into conversions. As an advertiser, you stand to lose not only your credibility but also money because you have to pay for each click, irrespective of whether it converts into a sale.
If you are planning to launch an online banner advertising campaign, you can keep the following points in mind.
Decide on the purpose of the banner advertisement: Banner advertisements perform two functions, entice potential customers to visit the publisher's website to make a purchase, and secondly, to create or strengthen brand awareness. These factors will help you decide on the text and graphics to be used in the banner, the type of banner (GIF, GIF-animated, rich media) as also which sites to host the banner advertisement.
Post banner ads on pages with related web content: Internet marketing is highly audience focussed. This is one major factor that differentiates online advertising from all other forms of advertising. Take the case of newspaper, radio, or TV advertising. People are forced to see or hear about ads about products or services they are not really interested in. Internet advertising, on the other hand, works on the principle that online ads, including banner ads, should appear to the people who are actually interested in the offering in question. Consider the example of an online store selling kids' furniture. Now, a person who wishes to buy these items, will type in this phrase in the search bar. The result page will show some sponsored links, or paid ads of companies selling kids furniture. Secondly, the results page will also list websites with content related to kids' furniture. To reach your target audience, your banner ad should be placed on web pages that deal with content related to your offering, in this case furniture for kids. This way, your banner advertisement will be read by people who are actually interested in purchasing the product. This will greatly increase the click through rate of your banner advertisement. So as a ground rule, the more related the content to the page the better the success of your banner advertisement.
Advertise your product or service rather than your website: The content of your banner should be minimal but it should give a strong message in the minimum possible words. People will read your banner advertisement if they are interested in what is being said in the message. Simply advertising your website on the banners isn't going to improve the conversion rate. You can however, mention the name of your website in the call to action, for example, for more information about the product, visit the website followed by the name of your website with the appropriate link.
Link the banner advertisement to the product page rather than the home page: This is very essential because ultimately the people will first visit your website to know more about the product and service rather than learning more about you. If they like what you offer, only then will they show interest in checking out your credibility. Therefore, it is essential that your banner advertisement link should lead to the product or service advertised in the banner rather than the home page.
Banner ads should appear on the top rather than farther down on the page: A lot of research has gone into understanding on which part of the web page is a banner ad most effective. The results clearly show that banner advertisements attract the highest attention if they are placed horizontally on top of the page or vertically on the top right side because these places attract the maximum attention. Secondly, if readers are not interested in the content given in the page they are unlikely to scroll down.
Animated banner ads are better than static ads: Banner ads should be able to grab attention and it goes without saying, 'movement' attracts more attention than something that is static. Animated banner ads have multiple frames with different images and text appearing one after the other. Apart from being more attractive, they also arouse curiosity in the readers so that they pause for a few seconds to read what is going to follow in the next frame. Given the fact that people spend more time on an animated banner than a static banner, there are more chances of the message being registered and, if not used immediately, stored for future use. There are banners that use audio visual files, however, their use should be restricted as these files slow down the page loading time and a user may just move away to another site. Ideally, the size of the file should not exceed 5000-5500 bytes.
Use relevant messages and attractive graphics: As already stated, the best banners are animated banners. However, in animated banners since the frames keep changing after every few seconds, the content should contain a strong message that is able to retain reader attention. The message should be complimented with an attractive image that gives some information about a product. For example a banner for a specific fitness equipment can have an image of a person exercising on that particular machine. Research has shown that more than the text it is the images that attract attention. It is important to point out that images should not be misleading. People who see the image form related impressions in mind that induce them to read the messages in the banner. If however the message does not connect with the image, or for the matter the landing page does not connect with what it has promised in the banner ad, it will put off the users and the clicks will not turn into conversions. As an advertiser, you stand to lose not only your credibility but also money because you have to pay for each click, irrespective of whether it converts into a sale.