A properly designed banner ad can drive traffic to your site, create brand awareness and ultimately boost sales - but only if it's placed on suitable websites or network of websites.
How to Make an Effective Website Banner Ad
Follow these 5 tips to create effective banner ads:
- The simpler, the better
- Include a call-to-action (CTA)
- Build on your brand
- Use proper placement
- Keep your file size small
1. The simpler, the better
Amongst the clutter that exists on the internet, your banner ads must compete for the viewer’s attention. Your viewer will probably scan the page quickly, only laying eyes on your ad for mere milliseconds. An ad that is simple and direct will get your message across in a short amount of time.
2. Include a call-to-action (CTA)
You need to tell your visitors what to do. It is then more likely that they will do it! For example “Click Here” or “Buy It Now” reminds your viewer that there’s more information or a special offer available with the click of the mouse.
3. Build on your brand
Your web banner is a great way to build upon your brand image. So design your banner using your corporate colours, fonts etc – and always include your logo and tagline.
Even if the user doesn’t click-through this time, your brand will have a better chance of being top of mind in the future.
4. Use proper placement
Make sure you place your banner ad on relevant websites, with customers that are already in the market for your product.
You can be creative in your placement, advertising where your competitors aren’t, but make sure you’ve got the right audience – do your research.
5. Keep your file size small
Web banners need to load quickly or they won’t be seen. Make sure your file size is around 45-70kb so that it loads before your audience has moved onto another web page.
I am a Cambridge University Honours graduate with postgraduate business qualifications. I am also a qualified Secondary School Teacher having taught at schools including Melbourne Grammar School and Scotch College in Perth. Married with 4 kids, I am a cricket tragic. I love business, marketing, advertising, music, playing guitar and singing. My music can be found here http://soundcloud.com/plopconsortium/sets/tunes My linkedin profile can be found here: http://www.linkedin.com/in/davidprice2
Do you need help with
display advertising?
David Price, Director at Price Advertising
Historically the 300x250 box creative size gets the highest CTR out of any other size. Not sure why. But like all forms of advertising, with Banner ads, you need both a visual element to attract attention and then a solid call to action. Obviously it all depends on your advertising objectives but to generalise, three elements of design which tend to work well in banner ads are: • Plain text • Faces, especially female model like visages • Cleavage And of course, your call to action should be something which is appealing. Things like ‘Free information’ have great results because people like the word free and information is always good without requiring a commitment. Hope this helps.
Phil Khor, Founder at SavvySME
Thanks David, short and sweet! :) I see a lot of different type of graphics advertisers use to grab attention. Do you have any stats or pointers on the type of graphics or themes to use on banner ads that tend to work better than others?