How to create an effective banner
Design a banner that attracts attention
Banner advertising campaign can be very efficient tool in promoting your product or a site, simply because only visitors that are interested in what your banner offers follow through to your website. The success of your banner campaign, that provides targeted traffic, lays in the the effective banner design. So, how to design an effective banner? Outlined below are some guidelines I found helpful and practical. I hope these tips will be useful to you.
High contrast ratio.
Carefully consider background colors of the site where you intend to run your banner ad campaign. To attract attention it is helpful to make your banner stand out in the site background and be as noticeable and attractive as possible.
Banner size.
Generally the bigger the banner size better. Websites have become very complicated and cluttered in present day. The more of web page space your banner takes the better visibility factor it achieves.
88x31
120x60
120x240
125x125
120x600
160x600
180x150
234x60
300x250
392x72
468x60
728x90
Consider using non standard size and check if it will be accepted by the site you intend to advertise at. Non-standard format will give an edge to your banner campaign.
Audience.
Think of your audience. Who is a banner targeted at? What interests your audience? What will attract them to your site/product?
Text twists.
Negative banners or banners with a twist can arouse curiosity. For example text may include: �Don't click this� or �Why 90% fail in business�
Banners that promise to reveal a secret or a mystery can evoke interest as well. For instance: �Money making secrets revealed�
Use �Call to action� in your text to relate urgency of your information.
Banners that convey a benefit of clicking on it also add to the success of advertising campaign.
�Free� is an overused word, but nothing is so motivating as getting valuable stuff for free. Use this word skillfully.
Length of your message.
Short and to the point banners don't take a long time to grasp and understand and, thus have a much better success rate than banners with verbose, lengthy and unfocused messages.
Colors.
Bright colors such as yellow, red, lime green, and blue convert to a higher CTR (click through rate) than black and white. That is not to say that black and white can not be used. It depends on how they are being used.
Simplicity.
Simple ideas present themselves well and easy to understand in a short amount of time. And time is something you don't have a lot of when trying to draw someone's attention. According to many studies all you have is several seconds to catch your visitor's attention. After that they are gone.
Animation.
Static banners can work well provided they employ the steps described, but animated banners are a step above. Many times the most attractive banner is not the one visually beautifully designed, but the one that draws attention with animation:blinking, changing text, graphics etc.
Creativity and uniqueness.
Uniqueness and creativity goes far when attracting one's attention. It doesn't make sense to advertise with the same banner everyone else advertises with. You don't want your banner to look like every other banner on the market, especially those that has been used over and over and lost its appeal.
Banner linking.
You don't want to make your potential visitors/customers hunt and look for information without a reason. Linking banner directly to a page it displays information about is the best practice in this regard. Visitors directed straight to the source they are looking for.
Advertising time frame
Some studies have shown a dramatic drop in CTR after a period of about two weeks. This time frame will fluctuate depending on a visitor/member base of the site where you advertise and other factors. Advertising time frame is something to be aware of as you will reach the point where change in your banner design will be necessary if you wish to advertise to the same group of people.
Banner ad placement.
Top middle and top right positions on a web page get better results, to where bottom middle and bottom right provide very poor results. Top of the page is the first area seen by a visitor which gives more chances that the advertisement will be noticed. Bottom of the page is an area not always seen by a visitor if he/she is not interested in the site. Visitors may not stay long at the bottom once they reach it as well.
Testing
To arrive at the most effective banner design it will take time and effort. Period of testing involves designing a banner and running advertising campaigns at several sites. Recording results after and comparing campaign results. Making subtle changes in color or text font, graphics etc and comparing results between campaigns will give better understanding of what works best in your banner. It will also reveal individual traits of the sites where you ran your advertising campaigns. The final banner design that results in the highest CTR and/or sales is the banner to use.
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