While TV, radio and print media remain very popular means of advertising online ads have gained a considerable market share over the past decade. In this article, Mevvy proudly presents the basics of banner advertising, and a quick intro to get started right way!
Getting Started
Did you know that banner advertising is …
… the most commonly used form of online advertising?
… the best way of visual advertising to track your ROI (return on investment)?
… the only form of advertising that allows you to determine your specific target audience?
If you have not tried it, it’s about time. Getting started is really easy, and with this guide you’ll be a banner ad specialist in no time!
6 Important Details Of Your Banner Ad Campaign
First, here are the most important things to consider when planning a banner advertising campaign:
1. Why: What are you trying to achieve? Generate sales? Create brand awareness? Build a bigger community?
2. Who: Who is your target audience? What does their demographic profile look like (age, gender, profession, nationality etc.)?
3. Where: Where do you reach them? What websites do they visit that you can advertise on?
4. For how long: How long do you want to run the campaign for?
5. At what cost: What is your budget?
6. What are concrete measurable goals you can set to track your ROI on the campaign? A dollar-amount of sales? A number of clicks? A number of new likes/followers on your social media channels?
Once you have figured out the framework of your campaign it’s time to get started – and it’s all about the design of your banner …
What Should A Banner Look Like?
There are many variables to creating a good banner. Here are the most important points:
- Define your banner ‘story’. What do you want to tell people? How can you fit it into this tiny space? Work with text & images equally.
- Create either a generic ad, or a highly targeted one. Example: you can advertise for your ice cream shop, or for your strawberry-mint creation.
- Keep your message clear. Remember what you defined as your campaign goal? Convert this goal into a call-to-action message.
- Include an actual call-to-action ‘button’ – Get It!, Find Out More, Get Started etc. and give it a bright color.
- Don’t forget to include your logo!
- Use colors that support your logo and corporate identity, but don’t go too crazy on colors as many sites disapprove of invasive banners.
- Think carefully about where this banner links to. Is it going to your home page, or a specific page within your website?
- Stick to standard sizes. The most commonly used banner sizes are 728×90, 300×250 and 468×60. Create at least one version of your ad for each size.
- Make your banner interactive (if you want). Add effects to attract more attention.
If you need a little bit of inspiration, we’ve got the right resource for you. Moat is a directory of banners. It hosts example of real banners used by thousands of companies around the world!
If you are new to banner design, BannerSnack can help. It’s a great platform that allows you to build any type of banner. Check out their various templates, or create your very design.
Trial & Error
In most cases, you will need a few trial runs before you get a feel of what type of banner is most successful for your purpose. It is not always, however, the banner alone that needs some optimization. What about the landing page, in other words, the page your banner links to?
Here you have two options:
Option 1 – Create a completely customized landing page with Lander. It’s easy to set up and fun to play with.
Option 2 – Create two versions of your current landing page with Optimizely. Your audience will be shown both versions, and Optimizely’s analytics platform will tell you which version performed better.
Where To Book Ad Space For Your Banner
Can you imagine going from website to website, and sending each one an enquiry about their ad space? You don’t have to do this!
Check out BuyAds, which is a great directory of available ad space. You can find websites of different categories, and size.
Another similar service is called BuySellAds. BuySellAds does not only promote other websites, but invites you to apply for their program and place purchasable banner space on your very own website as well.
If you’d rather avoid buying ad space on one site only, you can join Google’s Ad Network alternatively. By working with their display network your ad may be shown on some of the most famous websites, including leading magazines and news centers – provided they are part of the network.
Introducing Retargeting
Let’s make up a scenario. Paul sees your ad, clicks on it, and gets to your website. He browses around for a minute, but then navigates away.
This leaves the question: How can you get someone back who’s already been on your website? The answer is retargeting.
AdRoll provides retargeting solution that allows you banner to magically follow the ex-visitor around the internet. Most people do not know this technology exists and are all the more astonished (and willing to return) when your company ad appears.
Track The Success Of Your Campaigns
No matter what your goals are, you need to keep an eye on them. After all, online advertising is pretty much the only means of advertising that allows you to measure your ROI – based on real statistics, not assumptions like with TV or radio ads.
Learn how to use Google Analytics inside out in order to extract information about your campaigns and analyze the results.
Are you already advertising online? What are some tips, tricks and things you’ve learned that you can share with us?
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