Banner Advertising-The Basics

What are Banners?
Banners are those advertising boxes that appear all over other people's websites.

Very often they're colourful and animated. They're designed to attract attention and induce the visitor to click on it, thereby taking them to the advertisers' website.

I've put some basic examples together at http://mklink.com/banners/

Their main benefits for the advertiser are brand awareness and measurable traffic, paid for typically on a cost per click (CPC) basis.

There's no doubt that the click through rates(a measure of effectiveness) are nothing like what they were in the nineties(averaging a couple of percent back then - typically a very small fraction of that now) as people have become more desensitized to them.

But, they're here to stay and they still represent a useful channel for traffic so here's some tips about how to get the most out of them.

(Obviously, you need to adjust these whether you aim to advertise via banners on someone elses' site or indeed of you aim to create revenue from adding banners to your website.)

Measure your own stats - Don't listen to anyone else.
The tips below are guidelines and as always you should test and measure for yourself.

Any decent website displaying your banner should have the software to allow you to test your banner's effectiveness by seeing your web stats.

Of course, you can double check their stats against your web stats as well to make sure that there are no 'ahem' discrepancies.

Put banners at the top if possible.
Typically they're more effective at the top of a web page than the sides or the bottom.

Start noticing other people's banners.
Take time to see what attracts your attention.
Copy them and test them.

The Word FREE is powerful - Use it.
Remember, people go online for information.
So - offer them free information.

Have a strong 'Call to Action Message'
As always, don't get too caught up in the graphics to forget to put a strong
call to action on the banner.

Offer something great and relevant in return for clicking
e.g. a free trial or software download or free report etc.

Use Animation.
The eye is naturally attracted to movement.
Unfortunately, this can lead to some very, very ugly banners and annoying web pages. However, I'd advocate always using animation as they still generally out
pull static ones.
Be careful of Filesizes creeping up with animation though ....

Small Fie Sizes.
Remember that people are scanning a page very quickly so if you're ad is taking several seconds to load then you're too late. Especially if there are other banners on the page. Having the banner at the top makes it vital that it loads quickly before people scroll down.

Banner file size depends several factors like the length of the animation, the amount of animation, and the physical size of the banner. Suggestion - keep it under 20K.

Speed of 'Story'
The whole of the banner is top provoke a click to your landing page. Therefore brevity and clarity are paramount. Remember: you are talking to people's subconscious.

Advertise in the Right Places
Just Google your choice of key phrases and see what sites comes up.
See what other people are doing and where.
Call up the site owners and ask what their rates are.
After a few calls, you'll be an expert!

They'll talk in terms on CPM - Cost per mille - ie thousand clicks.

My suggestion is that you don't pay a flat fee initially.
Just pay on a per click basis only.
If the site you advertise on has enough target traffic(e.g. yell.com) then you an look at other options.(Try negotiating everything)

Be Specific
Sure, you get more traffic on larger portal sites but the costs on niche sites are a lot less, more targetted and therefore higher converting.

Remember: It is usually better to have multiple streams of cheaper, niche traffic.

Have a Punchy Headline.
A headline says it all. Spend the most time on this testing it and getting it right.
Try changing colours and fonts. Checkout an article here
http://www.guidetoebookmarketing.com/articles.php?articleId=197

Saying 'Click Here' Works!
Just putting 'Click Here' on the banner can increase the click-though rate.
Make sure it stays on the banner(if it's animated) long enough to read it.
(Or make it on the last frame and make the last frame last a little longer...)
Don't believe me? Try it...

Keep the animation less than 8 seconds long
People will watch a film for several hours but you've typically got just a couple of seconds with your banner. As I said jut now, make the final frame last a bit longer for the call to action i.e. 'Click Here'

Using FLASH
You can make Animated GIF's in Adobe Photoshop.
(or indeed loads of freebie software just Google 'free banner creator')
However, FLASH banners have lots more opportunities.

They are smoother and can look better than animated GIF's. GIF's are older technology and don't require any plug ins but FLASH is a lot more accepted nowadays and offers a lot more opportunities.

Additionally, photos in FLASH can be compressed better without loss of quality(GIF compression for photos ain't great) and text effects are easier to create. In fact, I've used Macromedia FLASH to export the files as GIFs so you have both options if you want.
(Often website owners will ask you for both)

Additionally, FLASH banners can be interactive - e.g. getting he visitor to shoot a moving 'target' for example. Small flash banners can even be a mini 'game'.

This may account for their higher click through rates than animated GIF's.

Try Making the Banner look Like the Background
It's basically what Google does.

As people have become more desensitized to banners, you have to be more inventive in the way you get people to click on them.

Making a banner look like the content of a page, using blue underlined hyperlinks(if that's what the rest of the page uses) is on such way. This is similar to making advertising look like editorial in a newspaper.

Overhead:You'll have to create specific banners for the websites they appear on.

Rotate Banners.
Create several banners and rotate them(the web page provider may help here) and by tracking your stats you can see which are providing the best click throughs.

Exactly the same as in Google Pay per Click. Tryout a at least half a dozen.

Don't Join crowd.
If possible, don't advertise on a page with any other adverts.

Especially ones having several animated banners on a page as it looks terrible and instantly reduces your chances of being clicked.

Don't be Clever. KEEP IT SIMPLE.
Make it obvious what the advert is about and anyone interested in your products or services should be attracted to it.

Start being 'enigmatic' with clever stuff and you'll probably spend more time and money getting it wrong.

Select Your Landing Page.
Again, just as in Google Pay per click. Making people go directly to your home page may not be the best place to send them.

If the banner is about widgets - send them directly to your widgets landing page so that your back end conversion will be higher.

- Checkout http://www.mklink.com/training/ to get More Tips & Advice.

'till next time,

Mike Knight. MKLINK Internet Marketing Tips