Banner ads that work?
Today’s Traffic Tactic Thursday, I take a look at a tactic that has been around for a long, long time – banner ads. Because of that reason, experts claim that people have become blind to them and therefore banner ads are a waste of time. Really?
Banner Ads? What a waste of time!
Even though there is an element of truth to this, especially when you use the same banner ad everyone else uses on their site, it is no wonder they don’t attract attention!
But there are still some advantages to banner ads or they would have been abandoned by big name websites a long time ago, yet haven’t. Why not? Because you can create banner ads that work!
As I said before, banner ads continue to be a popular and widespread form of advertising where practically most websites still use one or more forms of banner advertising on it.
Though it is touted to no longer be an effective form of online advertising because of the declined, there are still ways, when followed, are proven to drive targeted traffic to your website or affiliate offer!
Side Note: it depends upon whether you are placing banner ads on other sites to drive traffic to your site, or using banner ads on your site to send visitors elsewhere like affiliate offer links. Either way, the tactics covered below will work for either situation.
Sites with banner ads take longer to load, who has time for that!
In today’s world, most people have no time to wait. It is important to make sure your banner ad uses only a small file. When you have a large .gif, .jpg, or .png file, it takes a few extra moments to download. By the time it completely loads, impatient visitors may have either left the page or have already scrolled down the page without seeing the banner.
Obviously, if people don’t see your banner, they surely cannot click on it! Instead, make it a point to restrict your banner ad file size to be around 25K to 50K; it may offer a challenge, but it can be done!
Also, make sure to include a call to action on your banner. This means using the words ‘click here’ or ‘sign up now’, to guide the visitor to click on the banner.
The main reason for doing this is because people who are used to seeing off-line banner ads just see the banners without having to do anything.
They’re really not always aware that they have to click on a banner to find out more! Be sure to make it a point to have a call to action on your banner ad to improve the effectiveness of the banner.
Banner ads no longer draw a visitor’s attention to them!
You are more likely to attracted attention when using moving elements in a banner. The whole idea behind banner advertising is to grab the attention of the visitor (without being annoying). By using small animation in a banner is sure to achieve this.
However, be sure to keep it small because animation will increase the size of the banner ad file, making the downloading time to be longer. Again, we don’t want to annoy the visitor or they will just leave without clicking on the banner ad.
More successful banner ads also incorporates some sort of fake element in the ad. There are a number of fake elements banner ads can use including fake video screens, fake scroll bars, fake text boxes and fake submits buttons.
When using any fake element, visitors think that they are clicking on a link to another page when clicking on a fake element, when in reality, they are actually clicking on a banner with a picture of a button and text link.
Most banner ads just blend into the background and are missed!
When putting together your own banner ad, use bright colors within the banner like blue, green and yellow because they tend to have a higher click-through-rate (CTR) than plain black and white banners.
Be cautious when using the color red, it should be used sparingly if at all. Of course, it depends upon your audience and where they are located, because red is considered to be insulting in some cultures.
Another element to include is using the word “FREE” in the banner as this can increase the number of clicks you get. Of course, you should decide what free offer to include in accordance with the objective you want to achieve with the banner ad.
You also want to convey to the visitor that by clicking on the banner, it will prove to be beneficial for him or her. This can be achieved by placing questions like “do you want more traffic” or “need help with your taxes” in the banner.
People don’t have the patience to read long banners; so keep them short and to the point.
When people click on a banner, they expect to go directly to the target page or offer to find the information they want. They don’t tolerate landing on a home page and then have to go hunting for the required information.
If banner ads really do work, then I should place them everywhere!
Another important point to remember about banner ads is to only use banners on sites that relate to your niche market or targeted audience. I’ve seen too many inexperienced marketers make this mistake, placing unrelated banners on their site or advertise their banner on unrelated sites.
What this means, if you have a banner for a new diet program for example, it is useless to place it on a site dedicated to software. Visitors to this site will not be interested in that banner, which will lead to no clicks on the banner, and thus wasting your money.
Another tip when creating a banner ad is to emphasize the benefits of your product or offer, and not it’s features, because this is what interests a visitor more.
I’ve used a few banner ads before and they simply don’t work!
My final tip is it is always better to create several banners with different styles and messages and then test each one out. You can do this by running each banner for a week or two, and collect data on its click through rates. Or if available rotate each banner whenever another visitor arrives.
Once you have collected enough data, you can then analyze (see) which banner ads got more clicks per visitor than the others and then use those successful banners. You can continue to refine your banner ad accordingly and test them again.
I encourage you to consider using these tips with your next banner ad campaign, and when you do, you are bound to experience improvements with your ads and find more people rushing to visit your site!
Have you any experience with banner ads and like to share? Have I missed anything that you would like to ad? Or perhaps you have a comment or question that you would liked to ad below! Also remember to share this article on your favorite social site, thank you!
Hi Michel,
Thank you for sharing this blog post, I was just thinking the other day about banner ads as it is one of the methods I have not tried, I do have banners on my own site, however, I would like to test out by placing my banner on various other sites in my niche. You have given some great tips, I particularly like what you have written about the fake elements, I do find myself drawn to click on ads that have the fake video icon on, I may use this method when creating my own banners.
Thanks Again and Ill let you know how my campaigns go!
All the best
John.
Your welcome John, I hope that your banner campaign works out for you and that I could help. Look forward to your results 🙂
You brought up some pointers I never thought about before with banner advertising when it comes to size.
I think though banner blindness is happening more and more and people are responding more to video advertising
Dr. Lisa
I have actually had better response from well placed banner ads than I have from video ads on some of my sites. It depends upon you niche market, the quality and copy of the banner, and like most things; location, location, location! 🙂
It’s an interesting subject.
I still need to sort out my own banners!
Personally I’d say I was a mix of them blending into the background, but some still have the ability to catch my eye.
I think the worst ones are where there are so many o them all next to each other – that just screams ‘adverts’ to the visitor!
cheers, Gordon
Hi Gordino!
As with anything, you can over do it which in turn makes it ineffective or even a complete turnoff! Good luck with your banners. 🙂
Great tips you have shared here. As you have said the success of banners will depend on the various tips you have given I like the point where you mentioned the color, size,call to action and where you place them.
Thank you Siphosith for your input! 🙂
I for one learnt to ‘block out’ ads from my sight. I just find that ads are getting more and more especially on those using Adsense. I used to wonder how come the ads seem to know where I am coming from. I had an experience of visiting different sites, both local n foreign and still see the sane ad. Only later then I know that’s adsense at work. Certainly interesting concept, but I find them very distracting. Reading the post, read read read….(oh Ad, pass)…read read read.. (Ad again..pass). It’s getting challenging to read such posts. Sometimes dont even know if they are part if the post or Ads…
For banner ad, I am sure there stil has place for it. I guess like many things else, moderation is the key. And stand out, yes! Trial n error still essential.
Thanks always for putting so much detail in your posts 🙂 You are awesome!
Hey Sandy, thank you for you comment and observation.
If there are websites with AdSense, I no longer even see them since I have an advance ad blocker on my browser that blocks them. The ad blocker also blocks certain banner ads from being seen, but not all of them depending upon HOW they are setup (iFrame, light box, and so on).
I have been on sites so loaded with flashing banner ads (and pop-ups) that really annoys me to the point where I have left without finishing the article or returning to those sites. This is a good reason why you don’t want to load your site with banner ads (or opt-in forms).
You are awesome, too!
It is rare nowadays for a banner to catch my eye, so I can understand why visitors can be pretty much “blind” to them.
While I’m sure there are other ways to compress the banner to a smaller size, I use photoshop.
I know many like the fake video image banner. But if you use one of those, be sure the person is taken to just a video and not a 10-page sales letter with a video on it. These people just want the video. Capture their email and then move them forward with whatever.
Although black and white banners are harder to pull off, I do think they can be eye-catching. Think sketch images that relay some emotional connection.
You mentioned site load times. That is something every webmaster needs to keep in mind at all times. There are tools that can help but perhaps you can address that in another article? But my suggestion is that your pages should load in under 3 seconds to be good.
Hi Dawn,
Thank you for sharing your input and observations. You made a good point about sharing ways to reduce load time in a future article that I have taken under advisement. I do have some cool ways to do it for those who use WordPress. 🙂
I place a few banner on my hobby site, it really didn’t work well. It get very little click through. I going give it try on how you explain it. Thanks for sharing.
Cena
Your welcome for the share. I would also like to point out that the amount of traffic to your site is significant factor with ads just like opt-in forms (both can have low CTRs). Also testing (like A/B split test) different banner ad designs and where they are placed is something many marketers miss experimenting with.