A web banner or banner ad is a form of online advertising which entails embedding an advertisement into a web page. It is intended to attract traffic to a website by linking to the website of the advertiser. Just like traditional ways of advertisement, web banners serve to notify and inform the consumer of the product or service in question, while presenting the reasons why the consumer should choose it among others. However, unlike the traditional advertising, ?and may be targeted to the viewer?s interests.
Here are several tips on how to achieve maximum with your banner ads:
- Originality. To achieve originality several factors should be concerned. As your ads will be competing with the web page?s content as well as with the other ads, your ads should shout their way off the screen, the more eye-catching, the better. In order to distract the viewer?s attention from other ads, you should study your competition?s ads and make sure yours are different.
- Psychology of words. There are several simple steps you can take to improve your click-through rate (CTR). Studies have shown that by the use of imperatives in the headlines, such as Stop!, Wait!, and Look!, CTR has improved significantly. Also, phrases such as Sign up now, Buy now, and Shop Now work well to attract the viewer?s attention. You can also play with viewer?s basic emotions, for example, people hate when they?re missing something important. Tell them what they will miss out on if they don?t click on the ad or if they fail to click.
- Some viewers tend to disregard the banner ads. To avoid that you need to draw the user?s attention away from the web page?s content. You need to give them a reason to click on your ad. How do you achieve that? You will have to take into consideration what would motivate your target audience to click on your ad. Will it be a special discount or a chance to win a prize, highlight whatever appeals most highly to your niche in your banner ad. Depending on if you are business-to-business or business-to-consumer advertiser you can ?bribe? your ad viewers with, for example, free white paper or free samples. Free offers such as free downloads, free shipping or free trials are proved to work as well.
- Make sure to stress what is important in the ad. Using an animation will do the trick. Make sure to use familiarities in order to encourage users to click on your ad. For example, internet users are used to links appearing in blue underlined text. Also, putting your logo and domain discreetly (most commonly at the bottom) can help increase CTR.
- Efficiency, simplicity as well as quick loading time are of great importance in making banner ads. In order to achieve that, you need to keep your ads short, simple and to the point. Unlike the print media, where ad can take whole page, in the case of banner ads, less is always more. Long ads are simply repulsive to read and people just don?t have the time nor the patience to read them. Make an impact by using keywords relevant to information found on the site the potential customer is on.
Most web pages you advertise on will have the ad size limitation as well as the display limitation. For example, Google allows files up to 50KB to be uploaded. For quick load times, you should consider keeping your banner file size under 25KB. This has been proven to be rather difficult when you want to create an awesome-looking ad, but you want ads to load extremely quickly. To keep your file size as small as possible, include only one or two movements within your animated banner ads.
Here are some standard sizes and formats available for banner ads (static and animated):
- Banner (468?60)
- Leaderboard (728?90)
- Square (250?250)
- Small square (200?200)
- Large rectangle (336?280)
- Medium rectangle (300?250)
- Skyscraper (120?600)
- Wide skyscraper (160?600)
? Leaderboard (728?90): The leaderboard is the most common banner ad type, and the most frequently used nontext ad unit on the content network. The leaderboard is often at the top of the page, set apart from the rest of the content.
? Medium rectangle (300?225): The medium rectangle is the second most common banner ad size.
It usually costs more than the leaderboard, because it is often clustered more closely with content on the page. These ads are often surrounded on three sides by relevant content.
? Wide skyscraper (160?600): The wide skyscraper is essentially the vertical equivalent of the leaderboard.
Making the banner ads blend into the surrounding is very important. Your banner ads should be like an extension of your website or landing page. Many businesses make mistakes of using the same ads for different websites. The ad can carry the same message but be sure that it matches the color of the web page and at the same time stands out from the crowd of other ads. As well as the color, the ad should also match the content of the page. For example, if you are making an ad for a news website, you could design your ad to look like a news story. This way, the ad will look less like an advertisement, but you?re still drawing attention to your ad. Billions of people may see these ads, so make sure that you maintain your brand messaging continuity.
- ?So far we have gone through the process of making ads. But what now? Well, now is the time to choose the right place to display your ad. Knowing your enemy and knowing your target audience are two crucial factors.
You simply cannot compete without knowing your competition. That will be the right time for doing your research. Log on to popular websites, related to your industry, and go through hundreds of ads. Find ones you like and ones you dislike and see if any common factors jump out at you.
However, even when you create a fantastic banner ad it can still fail miserably. Instead of going back to the roots, check if you are targeting the right niche. For example, you cannot simply advertise expensive gadgets to people who cannot afford them. Study the audience on the website where you plan to display the banner ads to determine if that audience is right for the products you are looking to advertise.
Also, changing the design of your banner ad can help improve your CTR. Studies have shown that a banner ad starts losing effectiveness after the third time a person has seen it. If they haven?t clicked on it by then, they probably won?t. Finding a way to track your clicks can help improve your ads in the future as well.
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