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!
