Design The Perfect Banner

When you look at an advertisement, you immediately judge it. If you like it, you will continue to look at it and learn about what it is advertising. If you do not like it, you ignore it, walk away from it and never think of it again. This is why the first impression an ad gives off is so important. Banner ads are the same way; a user’s first impression means everything. A banner placed on a website should be creative and give off a good first impression to a viewer to try and persuade that viewer to click on the ad even if it means leaving the website that they are currently on. You want to create a banner that is different from all of the other banners that are online but is still eye catching. This article will give you all the hints and tips that you need to create the perfect banner.

1. The text on your banner should be short, simple and easy to remember.

Certain words and phrases can have a psychological effect on people. Telling users to “click here” or to “act now!” can make them want to do what you say. Action words and phrases are great ways to get people to click on your ads. Putting too much text on an ad will make people not want to read it and for that reason they will not read it.

You should create multiple different banners when you are first designing you banners. Some should be very different from each other but some should also be very similar to each other with small differences in the text or content. You will be able to find which words or images are making people click on the ad the most.

2. Design your banner to be able to blend into the specific website it is going to be put on.

The better job a banner does at blending in with the website it is on, the more clicks it is going to receive. If an ad stands out like crazy on the website that it is on, it will bother viewers and people will be annoyed by it which may eventually cause the website owner to take your ad off their website. If a banner blends in and provides a short, simple, effective message to a viewer they are much more likely to click on it than if it were like the ad previously mentioned.

3. Make your ad as small in memory as possible.

The bigger your banner is, the more time it will take to load and it may even slow down the entire webpage if it is too big. People never click on ads when they do those things and website owners will sometimes remove them from their website or even refuse to post it up in the first place. The smaller you can make it without sacrificing content, the better it will be for you.

4. Make several different banners with different designs and basic formats.

(a) The more banners you have, the more options you will have when advertising.

(b) Test each banner for a previously determined number of hours or days and see which banners are clicked on the most from the same or very similar websites.

(c) Analyze your results and make changes to your banners one at a time so you can see how each change affect a specific banner.

(d) Always watch your click through rate after you make a change. You always want to be increasing this rate and should only be making changes that do that.

5. Blend colors to create an attractive looking banner for your viewers to see.

The more attractive your banner is to your viewers, the more of them will click on it. It is simple logic that people are more likely to click on a nice smooth red and white blended banner instead of a dark yellow and faded brown colored banner.

People associate colors with different words and objects. You want to use colors that people usually associate with similar things. For example, most people think of things like grass, plants and trees when they see the color green. The color blue makes people think of the ocean and the sky. Finding the right combination of colors that will send the right psychological message to your viewer is very important in getting a user to click on your advertisement.

6. Go Beyond Ordinary with Your Banner.

Adding animation to your banner will make it stand out from other banners. It may take more work and time to create banners with animation but it will pay off in the end when far more users click on your animated banner than they would have on your simpler banner.

7. Analyze the statistics and performance of your banners on a daily basis.

You should always know the current click through rates of your banners so you know when they are going up or down. If you ever have a click through rate drop below half a percent then you need to make some major changes to that banner and make them quickly. You want your banner to have a click through rate of a minimum of half a percent and a good goal for a really successful banner is to have it reach a two percent click through rate.

(a) Understand the performance of your banners.

(b) Just because your banner has not reached your goal of a two percent click through rate does not mean that it is not working well. If a banner has anything over one percent it is likely well worth whatever you are paying to have it posted.

(c) If any of your banners either drops below half a percent or are just on a steady decline for consecutive days, it is wise to switch it with another banner or to try making some changes with that specific banner.

(d) Never make more than once change at a time on your banner. You will not be able to tell what change is responsible for the banner’s new success or failure if you make several changes at a time.

(e) Do not only advertise on one website. Some websites will produce better results for your banner ads so you should try advertising on multiple websites to see which sites are the most effective.

Don’t forget that you can make changes to your banners at anytime. You will always have access to their up to date statistics so only you are going to know when changes need to be made. There is never going to be a perfect banner that is clicked on by every single user that sees it. Due to this, banners can always be improved and get better. Never be satisfied with your banner, always be ready to make improvements for when the time comes that the banner needs some minor or major adjustments.

8. Do not joke around, get straight to the point.

Do not dance around the subject on your banner. Get right to the point. Outspoken banners will catch a user’s attention because the user will not need to think to understand the ad and what it is advertising. People do not want to spend a lot of time reading advertisements or having to think about them to understand them. The simpler the message is, the better it will perform.

9. Only put your banners on websites that receive a lot of traffic from people in your target market that you would consider potential customers.

Advertising in places where you cannot find your target market it a waste of time. All ads should be put in places where people who want or need what you are selling can be easily found. If you are advertising paint brushes, you should advertise on websites that people who paint are often found. This is the best way to reach your potential customers.

10. Make your website easy to use for anyone. It should be easy for a new internet shopper to add a product to their online cart and then make a purchase on your website. If your website is too confusing, you will lose out on many customers and sales.

The simpler and easier it is to make a purchase, the more purchases are going to be made.

11. Do not just use one landing page, have multiple landing pages.

Years ago, you would only need to have one landing page for users to be directed to and you would be fine. That is not the case in today’s online world. You need to have multiple landing pages to send your users to the pages they most desire.

12. Decide how big you want your banner ad to be when displayed on websites and choose the location where you want your banner ad to be displayed.

You want to pick a place that the banner fits in well and blends in with the website. It should be in a place that is easy to see but not somewhere like the middle of a webpage where it will be a bother to viewers.

• Your banner should be customized to fit a specific and individual website.

• Pick the website that you want your banner to be on and then go back and make any change that you need to make to your banner to make it fit in on the website.

Putting your advertisement on a homepage is not always a great idea. It attracts the most viewers so it costs the most but it is not always the most effective. It is easier to single out certain people in your target market by placing ads on specific webpages and not just on the homepage that contains everything.

13. Everything needs to be as simple as it can possibly be.

There are far too many ads out there today that are confusing and misleading to the people who read them. This has led to people not trust advertisements, especially banner ads. Your ad needs to be straightforward to be able to gain trust from a viewer and get them to click on it.

14. Hire a Pro to Create Your Banner

It will cost you extra to have a professional graphic designer create your banner ad but it will be worth it. Spending a little extra money will make your banner be the work of a professional and it is easy to tell which banners online are the work of professionals and which banners were created by a regular person on their computer.

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By: Naor

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