Internet Marketing News – Search Engine Marketing

Banner creation comes easily to some … while others can spend hours looking at a blank piece of paper or screen. Personally, I fall into both groups! However, when I’m stuck I always find it useful to go back over some of the best practices in banner creation, to remind me exactly what I’m trying to achieve, and the framework I’ll be doing it in. Here are 6 of the most important ‘best practices’ in banner advertising and creation that are relevant today.

1. Have a goal
The goals of most banner ads is either to raise brand awareness or to create a conversion for the website. The conversion might be signing up to a newsletter, subscribing to paid content, purchasing something … or just about anything else.

2. Use your goal to create a call to action
In most advertising media, you need to tell people exactly what you want them to do – or they look at your ad and just look away. Tell people that you want them to click, where you want them to click, and what you want them to do after they’ve clicked!

3. Remember who you are talking to
Your strategy for banner creation will be very different depending on whether you are talking to teenage boys, Moms with kids, tradesmen, executives, small business owners…

4. Know why THEY will care
You care about your banner ad because of its potential to make you lots of cash! Understandably, that’s not why your customers will care. Remember exactly what is in it for the people looking at your ad. Spend some time visualizing yourself in their place, and imagining how the advertised product or service will affect their wellbeing.

5. Love your colors
One of the primary features of your banner that will do all that attention-grabbing work is the color. Use a color-selection tool available through Google to create a stunning color scheme.

6. Think outside your corporate box
You will want to retain some of your branding in banner ads … but amongst that, don’t be afraid to be different in your banner creation! A great banner creation idea that doesn’t quite fit with your corporate image could just be the best risk your business ever took.

Is your company suffering from a bad case of ‘image dating’? If your logo was designed back when the company was founded, your website was built in the 90s and your corporate materials get sent out automatically every 3 months by your printer, then you may want to think about updating the business image! If you’re largely an online business, the first image-based contact that many customers will have with you is your banner advertising. You can modernize the company with very little effort simply by noting some of the trends in banner ads design, incorporating them into your own offering. When you find out which ones work best, you might want to think about updating that website and logo along the same lines, as well….

1. Curves and ‘swooshes’
That Nike swoosh is coming back in banner ad design with a vengeance! It’s fairly easy to incorporate into your own ads – instead of cutting out your advertisement image along its edges, or creating a square border for a photo, let part of your image ‘hang off the side’ of the ad, and overlay a curve or swoosh on the edge that is protruding into the ad. Easy!

2. Orange, blue, black and white
This four-point color scheme can be used in your banner ads in a few ways. Either pop the orange, blue and white together, the orange, blue and black together, or simply the orange and blue. I still don’t recommend blue and black as a color scheme (too hard to differentiate, especially on a screen), and blue, black and white has a stuffy, corporate look nowadays.

3. Deals in the ads
Ads are not just about ‘creating awareness’ of your company any more. People are aware of far too many things. You need to give people a real, concrete reason to look at your ads – and that means including a freebie, deal or discount. Make sure you include the actual words ‘Free’, ‘% off’, etc within your ad to draw attention.

4. Sans serif fonts
If you want to be seen as a contemporary, up-to-date type of company, your banner ads should use mostly sans serif fonts. Some minimal usage of handwriting or picturesque fonts is also appropriate – but mostly the clean sans serif lines will rule in banner ads for a while.

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After determining what banner ad size will suit your message best, the next most important factor in choosing a size is the sort of response it will create from consumers! There is no single magical banner ad size that will put your brand recognition through the roof, your response rates up to 10% and will be accepted on websites everywhere … but consumers do think differently about different banner advertising sizes. Here are some of those thoughts!

468×60 Banners
These are somewhat of an awkward size. Most of the sites offering 468×60 banners have them left over as a relic from many years ago … they simply haven’t upgraded their advertising standards. This is definitely not the width of a standard computer screen, so it doesn’t allow the content to stand out along the top of the web page – it usually ends up being surrounded by ads with little opportunity to stand out. Worst, consumers simply see it as a hangover from the early nineties … the dotcom bust era.

120×600 or 160×600 Banners
This is the skyscrapers size, and it is relatively heavy use across the net still. From a consumer’s point of view, these are definite attention grabbers. However, they often necessitate scrolling back up or down in order to see the whole ad, and many people just won’t bother. After all, it isn’t like most consumers have a shortfall of advertising in their lives!

300×250 and 180×150 Banners
These ‘close to square’ banners are much mire widely used nowadays – you have probably noticed that many web design and blogging sites nowadays have a raft of them along the right hand side. They are actually seen as quite a contemporary banner advertising size by your consumers. The other reason that consumers are starting to appreciate these more regular sizes is that DESIGNERS are starting to appreciate them more! It is actually pretty difficult to fit images and copy within a horizontally or vertically thin advertisement, and many of them end up looking pretty so-so. Listen to your designers – if it’s good for the graphics folks, it’s good for your customers!

Of course, there are dozens of different banner advertising sizes to choose from on many sites. As a general guideline, look for balance of horizontal and vertical space, and take up as much of the web page as you can!

If an advertiser is adding banners to the advertising program, what elements make the best and most successful banner ads? Generally, they are clean banner designs that motivate viewers to view a site. They catch the eye, generate interest and attention, use friendly and readable fonts and graphics, are compelling, and continue a ‘theme’ that coordinates with the web page.

Effective advertising banners are designed to utilize animation, offer good ad copy, propose benefits, employ bright colors, tell the truth, use power words, change frequently and are tested to determine the best locations to attract the target audience.

Animation, if used carefully, will attract visitors far more than simple text will. It engages in a different way and encourages participation. Ad copy should be short, concise and intrigue viewers. Use words that invite viewers to ‘act.’ Words like ‘Free,’ ‘proven’ and ‘limited time’ all promote something interesting to come. Benefits should be emphasized as opposed to features. When a visitor clicks on the site for a free e-book, they will benefit. If the link takes them to more sites, that is a feature. Bright colors catch the eye and have a better click through ratio then black and white. Blue, yellow and green in particular are helpful. Truth is a very important element. No one wants to be lured into something under false pretenses. If the offer is a ‘free’ e-book, it should be received. This would be remembered in a very positive way, and increase credibility tremendously. Word choice can be critical to success, particularly power words. Power words are words such as ‘unbelievable’ and ‘heartwarming.’ They include ‘new and improved’, ‘money back guarantee,’ ‘immediately,’ ‘affordable,’ ‘revealed,’ and so on. Another design element within banner design is the concept of ‘change.’ If the banner ad looks the same all the time, visitors will begin to ignore or overlook it. If aspects of the banner change periodically, it will refresh the message and encourage additional traffic. The final characteristic of a well-designed banner utilizes testing as a measurement of success. Testing allows an advertiser to measure results to find the best combination of design and placement to attract desired targeted viewers.

Effective banner design will contribute to the ultimate success of the advertising banner and the ultimate success of the web site. It all depends on a viewer taking action, and the better the design, the more likely the action.

Advertising banners are a great way to drive potential customers to a website. But what is involved? What are the elements needed to create an effective banner? Some of these elements include the background, buttons, text, animation, graphics, logo, size, and duration. Clean designs generate interest and gain the most attention. The background should be coordinated and compatible with the graphics and colors of the text as a part of the whole. Bright colors attract the eye far more than black and white. The most effective buttons contain call to action words like ‘click here’ or ‘sign up now’. Bold fonts and colorful graphics can create the look that attracts the targeted audience. The best duration has found to be a slow to moderate speed, which attracts attention without overwhelming the reader.

Some banners contain video and sound. Video banner ads start when loaded, or when clicked on. Rollover banner ads open video, sound and/or expand larger when the cursor comes near the ad without requiring a specific action. Often these are by accident and if the readers’ attention can be captured, they will investigate further.

The goal when creating banners is to convey a message, communicate the message in a simple and interesting way, and avoid being ignored. Several other things need to be kept in mind. It needs to be eye catching, but not obnoxious. Keep the message short and simple. A viewer will only give it a few seconds before moving on. It has to be something interesting to viewers. If it’s not relevant, they won’t continue. A viewer needs a reason to click on the banner, so make it a compelling proposition, the ‘best deal available’, ‘unbelievable’ or an offer to ‘win’ something, get something ‘free’ or other direct benefit that would pique curiosity and bring them in. The use of ‘power words’ can be valuable; words such as ‘unbelievable’ or ‘heartwarming’ for example. After the person is ‘in,’ there has to be a ‘follow through’ procedure; what happens next? Does the link bring them to a shopping area or a page with additional information?

Banner creation should be part of the overall advertising and marketing strategy. It must support the other elements of the plan and coordinate well with each one. It requires significant planning and development to achieve the goal of driving a target audience to the web page to increase views and revenues.

Incoming search terms:

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