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Banner Advertising
The start of the new year has brought out the banner advertising bashers. Some say they're not effective anymore and others say you just need to create banners in different ways. I'm on the latter side. It goes without saying that when you see something on a consistent basis you tend to tune it out on future occasions. Wait! Suppose you use that same product or service on a daily basis and you would like to know about money saving specials?
Most advertisers today are bashing banners due to their experience with them. Everyone is entitled to their own opinion and this is mine. Advertising banners work in the right place, in front of the right people, using the right technique and at the right time. This article is my attempt to show or instruct you on some ideas on making an effective banner for use in your advertising campaign.
According to the experts, books that I've read and banners I've created, these are the four areas you should be aware of when creating your banner.
Attract Attention
Animate It.
Your first screen must draw immediate attention, the subsequent screens should make them want what you have.
Answer these questions
- What is your "Unique selling position?"
- What is the "Main Benefit" you are offering?
- What "Problem are you Solving?"
- Who is "Your Target Audience?" [ this will determine if you can use tricks on your banner ]
- What is the "Purpose of your banner?" [ to sell immediately, persuade them to visit your website, leave your name imbedded in their brains, to inform for future purchases ]
Stimulate Interest
- Ask a question
- Make em laugh
- Promise something
Talk to us first before you do [this] yourself.
Purchase [this] and get an additional [that].
Use [this] and never worry about [that] again.
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"FREE" is by far the most powerful word in advertising language. It stimulates
a quick response from prospects.
Some think you get the wrong prospects when you use "free" in your banner
copy. Not true. Everyone likes free products, services, or samples.
Even law firms and doctor's offices have done very well by offering a
"first visit at no charge."
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Giving it away
- free report that solves a problem
- free drawing for a prize
- free subscription to your newsletter
- free trial offer of your products
- free software download
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Desire Make them want what you have - This is where your Unique Selling Position comes in. So what is it?
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Action Tell them what to do now by using the phrases "Click here or Enter here. Some people will tell you this is "old style" and not to add it to your banner, but as you know the internet is getting bigger and bigger everyday. Adding "Click Here" is just your way of telling inexperienced users what to do. Another technique is to also add the location of your website and other pertinent information in smaller font. A safety feature so the viewer does not have to leave the site they are on, they can just remember the address of your site, company name or logo for later reference. It also helps if your URL can be easily remembered.
Banner design can take many forms.
- Interactive banners that will let you enter a contest, collect an email address and send an autoresponder message, conduct surveys or polls and search remote websites.
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Search for books at Amazon from this location.
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- Static banners
- Animated banners
- Designed to trick - fake search boxes, drop down list boxes, scroll bars, naked women not associated with the products being sold, simulate errors that naturally make you click on the banner to make it go away.
Below are a few examples of non-interactive banners made to make you think they are functional.
Start typing in the search box above.
See if you can tell the difference by only making a visual inspection.
Now imagine if I made the first one an active banner with a link attached. When you click to scroll down, you would actually leave this site and move on to another.
- Banners with drop down list boxes. This type of banner is great for sites that have an enormous amount of information. By using a drop down list box you can save a visitor time by connecting them quickly with information. It also lets them see what your site has to offer before they click away. On the other hand be aware that too many choices can turn off a person. Once again if you know your target audience well, the choice you make will be the right one. With this design you must focus on getting the viewer to open up the list. Do this do that!
- Designed for low click through - "Explicitly designed to make the user pick up the phone and by-pass all internet correspondence." If you ever see a banner with a phone number included, you've witnessed a banner designed for low click-through.
After making your banner you must place it in a location highly travelled by most people. The most popular locations are at the top, bottom or bottom right (basically for right handed people.) Think about this. Where does your mouse rest after you are finished scrolling down a webpage. Obviously this will not work for left-handers.
For some time advertisers have been testing the market with Micro-banners. They are basically banners that are thinner and longer than the "standard " size banner.
Try to make your banner size [not visual size] as small as possible. For example, the banner above is 6kb in size. If you want to use banner exchange programs they require that your banner by no more than 15bk. The size of your banner will directly affect the speed at which a webpage will download. <sarcasm> If you want fewer visitors to your site, make your visitors wait. </sarcasm> Common sizes are are either 400x40 pixels or 468x60 pixels and under 15k. The actual size of your banner is decided by the website you are hoping to advertise on or exchange banners with.
Monitor the effectiveness of your banner to see if it is providing the results you desire. Note that not all banner advertising campaigns fail due to the design of the banner. Take note of these other factors.
- The site is not a suitable place to advertise. Remember that sheer numbers does not ensure a successful advertising campaign. It would be in your best interest that you try to target your audience. The big sites may have many visitors but to advertise on them may cost you a bundle. In my opinion you can get a similar or better response to your ad by buying advertising on many smaller and more targetted websites.
- Where is the site you've advertised on located? Imagine going to a site that takes forever to download. Once again they are many factors involved but if you know the geographic location of your primary target audience then you should search for the best sites hosted in that area. How long does it take you to drive 100 miles as opposed to 5 miles? Every little savings in speed helps in this market of short attention span people.
- How well your banner fits into the overall design of the page. Some people may find your colour scheme awful. Remember that you can't please everyone and this is relatively speaking.
Banners work. In my opinion it's best to accompany the banner ad with text links in that same page. You can also write an advertisement into the content of a website using just a text link. This is a test of your creative writing and involves a bit of rewriting and rewriting. However, this is probably an easier way to tap into the subconscious mind.
Questions to ask before you commit to advertising.
- How many individual people visit the website each month? Ask for access to their traffic logs. Most ISP's today will offer this service as part of a webhosting package. What pages are the most frequently visited?
- How many ads will be displayed on the page at any one time? The least number of ads displayed along with yours, the higher your chance is of getting folks to click on your advertising.
- Where will your banner be displayed on the webpage or website? In my experiences with banner ads, I find that placing them on the bottom obtained the best results. It doesn't help to provide sloppy content thus making your visitors want to click on anything to get away from your site. I'm not suggesting you find a terrible site with lots of traffic and advertise there. I must say that's not a bad idea.<g>
- Does the page where your ad is located quick to load. Once again you can answer this question by determining who your target audience is, what modem speed you think they are accessing the internet and what time of day you guess they would be looking for what you offer.
- Can you target users from a certain domain name? If you have a product that integrates well with AOL, you might want to only have your ad viewed by folks who are a customer of AOL. Can you also target a specific age, sex, or geographic location?
Before creating your banner, answer the following questions
- Who is your target audience? What phrases are most familiar to them? What colours do they usually associate with your type of product or service? If you speak in generalities, the most popular colour combinations are, black and yellow, black and white, red and white.
- Are they an experienced user of the internet?
The answer to this question will determine if you can use tricks to get them to click on your banner. Some people will say that a person who is tricked into going to your site will not be impressed when they realize what you've done. Now if the person who has clicked on your banner is new to the internet and are looking for what you banner offers, it doesn't matter if you tricked them or not. When they reach your site they will see that it delivers what they want.
- What kind of computer equipment do you presume they are using to access the internet?
This question will help you decide how complex your banner will be. Remember the more colours you use, animation and java all add to the speed of your banner. If your users all surf the internet with 28,800 modems or slower, your banner may annoy rather than attract attention. On the hand if your users are experienced and surf from the office on high speed lines, then by all means push technology to the limit.
The only special formula for creating banners is getting into the heads of your prospective audience. If you know where they are, what they want, and you have what they want, you win.
Banners can fail for a number of reasons and therefore must experiment. Here are just a few reasons why they fail.
- Poor location on a website (top, side, bottom right, bottom center)
- The wrong website has been chosen
- your ad does not relate in any way to the content of the website
- incorrect assessment of the audience visiting that website
- slow loading website
- too many competiting ads on the same page
- Poorly designed banner (a banner designed for the owner not the customer)
- Market conditions
You should always design more than one banner for those times when your favourite banner fails to draw customers. This may happen if you've used the same message over and over again. Don't let your banner go into the "Boring television re-run stage."
Moving into the next stage
After you get them to your website then what do they do next? How will you convert them from browser to shopper?
Where can you start you banner advertising campaign?
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