How to Design A Successful
Banner Today And For The New Millenium
By Eric Bonnici, BSc.,
BA. Copyright © 1999, Alexander Joseph & Associates, all rights reserved
Have you ever wondered
how to design a banner for your web site that will attract visitors
and have a high CTR (click through ratio)?
You’re not alone. I have
been considering this myself lately. Although I am an experienced
web developer and Internet Marketer I have not designed a banner ad
in almost a year. Furthermore, the rapid developments and advancement
of the Internet combined with my hiatus from banner productions has
left my skills a little rusty. Thus, to get back on my feet I thoroughly
researched banner advertising as it relates to the current market
and technology so I could create a banner for one of our web sites,
(the Eyes On Windsor Dining and Entertainment Directory - http://www.eyesonwindsor.com
). I discovered some very valuable facts and will share them with
you in this article.
Here is what you will learn:
1. The basics of successful
banner design
2. A note on targeting the right audience to improve click thrus
3. A note on testing to improve your results
4. How banner advertising is evolving with the advent of new multimedia
technologies.
Plus, you will find useful
links and references to banner related web sites on the net where
you can empower yourself with more information on this important facet
of Internet Marketing.
1. The
basics of successful banner design
Attract
Attention With Animation.
The first step in enticing
someone to click thru is for your banner to grab their attention.
So remember grabbing someone’s attention is one of your main goals.
A clean design that is appealing to the eye is important for both
static and animated banners. However, adding a little animation will
go a long way in grabbing your target’s attention over a static banner.
Clearly then, you should use animation on your banner.
Be sure to keep the animation
tame, don’t over do it, or else the animation may overwhelm the message
you are trying to convey with your banner. In fact, too much animation
looks tacky and will project an image of poor quality or unprofessionalism.
Finally, too much animation will increase the file size of your banner.
This will cause the banner to download so slowly that many web surfers
won’t see your banner because they will click away from the web page
before it finishes downloading.
Overall, animation used
properly is a very important facet of an effective banner.
Use
a Call To Action And Watch Them Click
An important part of a
banner is a call to action. Creating a call to action can simply be
done by adding the words "Click Here". Go a step further by putting
a button that looks clickable on the banner with the words click here
on it.
Rather than just telling
them to "Click Here", you could also tell them why to click here.
For example, if you are offering a free report, then you could say
"Click Here For Your Free Report", or a site selling cook books might
say "Click Here To Get Your New Cook Book". However, try not to go
overboard by using too many words because that will tend to reduce
the effectiveness of the banner. Usually just the words "Click Here"
will suffice when combined with an effective headline.(We will discuss
headlines more in the next section on Effective Ad Copy)
The main point to remember
is to get them clicking on your banner. By keeping a call to action
in mind when designing the banner you will be able to accomplish this
task.
Effective
Ad Copy
Make sure to use words
that motivate and sell. Keep the wording simple and short. Use a grabbing
headline by trying to incorporate a major benefit into the headline.
By adding a benefit to the banner’s headline you will be more successful
in motivating the web surfer to click thru. Benefits that work best
are those that give the web surfer the feeling that they will either
be gaining pleasure, avoiding pain, or will make their life easier.Remember
your space is very limited on a banner so keep your headlines short
and effective.
If you need some help improving
your ad copy writing skills two resources I would recommend are:
How To Make Your Ads Pull
Like Crazy - A Free E-Book
http://www.aj2000.com/ebooks/ADS-BOOK.EXE
Make Your Site Sell - A
lot of excellent ad copy info here.
Get your free demo download at:
http://www.sitesell.com/solutions2000.html
Study
and Model Successful Banners
One of the best ways to
succeed is to model what is already successful. I suggest you visit
The Neilsons/Netratings web site at
http://www.nielsen-netratings.com/hot_off.htm
The Neilson Netratings
site features the top 10 performing banners of the month and of the
week. Have a look there, you surely will be able to come up with some
new ideas or incorporate some aspects of these banners into your own
designs.
Banner
Related Articles
For more information on
banner design be sure to visit the Four Corner’s Effective Banner
Design Web Site. They have many articles on the subject:
http://www.bannertips.com/bannerdesign.shtml
2. A note on
targeting the right audience to improve click thrus
Putting your banner in
front of your target audience is very important. After all, what is
the point of placing a banner promoting Unix Programming on a Wedding
Planning Web Site? Common sense alone tells us that very few people
would click on that banner no matter how well designed it is. Clearly
then, be sure to place your banner in front of your target audience.
There are many methods
of doing this online. While this is beyond the scope of this article
I will mention two ways. One is to find a web site that compliments
yours and pay for a banner ad there. The second way is to use banner
advertising on the major search engines. The major search engines
will have your banner come up only when a web surfer does a search
using specific keywords (this method is pricey and recommended only
if you have a sizeable budget).
3. A Note on
testing to improve your results
In order to be successful
and improve your banner you must test it and measure the results.
First, define what results you are looking at. For example, is it
the number of sales made from your site, or the number of people who
subscribe to your newsletter? You will also need to keep track of
your banner CTR (click thru ratio). Most banner exchanges and ad agencies
you advertise with will keep track of this for you. Your job is to
slightly change your banner for a set amount of time, say a one week
period. Change one small thing at a time. For example, change the
background color of the banner, or change the wording slightly like
from "get your subscription today" to "get your free subscription
today". With every period of time you have a change implemented keep
track of the CTR and your desired results. Compare the two. What you
are aiming for is for an increase in both. When you find the best
results keep that banner for a while.
Note: Even though this
process will result in a productive banner, eventually the effectiveness
will wear off. Thus, it is important to replace your banners regularly
with fresh new ones after the banner starts to lose its effectiveness
and begin the testing period over again with the new banner.
4. How banner
advertising is evolving with the advent of new multimedia technologies
Banner advertising has
already started to march onward into the future with the help of technologies
like Java, and Real Network’s streaming audio and video. This has
given the banner ad the ability to broadcast both streaming audio
and video clips. In fact, ADNet President Michael Henderson said the
new audio-enabled ads have doubled or tripled previous click-through
rates for clients using ActiveBanner ads, according to ADNet research.
Some of the companies on
the forefront of these type of banners and links to their demos are:
ADNet’s Active Banners:
http://www.activebanner.com/demo.html
Frontier Interactive’s
Audio Banners:
http://www.audiobanner.com/vbanner/index.html
This type of banner advertising
and design will surely be common place on the Internet in the very
near future. In fact, we are currently developing multimedia enabled
banners using Macromedia's Flash 4 Technology. Be sure to keep your
eyes on this type of banner advertising technology.
Clearly then, banner advertising
and design is changing with the advent of new technologies. However,
like any proven advertising method it is important to stick to the
basics. So when it comes to banner ads follow the design tips above,
be sure to target your audience, and constantly test and change your
banners until you get the best possible results.
