There are many different ways in which you can market your products and get clicks through to your website.
There are strategies such as focusing on organic search and SEO, using email to get your offers out to a targeted list, social media as well as using some forms of paid search. In fact, there’s a ton of ways and you shouldn’t focus on just one.
In this blog, we’re going to explore something called banner marketing. You’ll find out:
• What banner ads actually are
• How they work
• Ways to make them more effective
• New forms of using online banner ads
You will probably have seen banner ads before but let’s give a bit of an explanation first.
What are banner ads?
If you’ve been on the internet for a few years then you will have come across a wide range of different banner ads.
These are essentially an image on a website that is put in a strategic place. There are a number of different sizes that banner ads can take but the most common are:
• 300×250 – Medium rectangle
• 336×280 – Large rectangle
• 728×90 – Leaderboard
• 300×600 – Half page or large skyscraper
• 320×50 – Mobile leaderboard
The images can be static but they are also sometimes animated. Web banner ads are very common and while they aren’t as popular as they once were, they still have their place in your overall marketing strategy.
How to use effective website banner adverts
You can’t just make a simple banner ad and through it up on a website. Well, you can but it is unlikely that it will be very effective. If you want to create a good website banner ads, we have some tips for you.
#1 Use high quality images
The days of 56k internet and slow loading times are pretty much gone. Even standard mobile data is pretty fast these days.
There isn’t really an excuse for not using a high-quality image on your banner ad. You can get many free stock images across the internet that can be implemented. Make sure you don’t go overboard with this though because while people tend to have fast loading times not everyone will and you need to think about where you audience is located.
That being said, if you use some good high quality images and don’t opt for something that is about 50mb in size, the chances are it’ll stand out on a webpage and result in clicks.
#2 Keep your colours consistent
If you have a brand you’ll need to ensure that your colour scheme is kept the same on all your banners.
While it might be tempting to go for something really flashy and bright, if your brands colours aren’t like this you should stay clear. Even if someone doesn’t click on your banner – in many cases the click through rate or CTR of banner ads is fairly low – they’ll most likely remember it due to your brand colours.
This is important so that you raise awareness about your online image.
#3 Keep them minimal
The days of having flashy banner ads are long gone and the emphasis now is to have something that isn’t intrusive to the viewer’s digital experience.
Banner ads should still stand out but also integrate into the existent content. You should have banner ads that have a minimal design that get the key point across right away and entice the viewer to look at it.
The simpler the banner the more chance you’ll have of someone actually clicking on it.
#4 Keep to the standard size
Finally, if you want an effective banner ad then keep it to the right size. Remember the list of most effective banner ad sizes that we mentioned above? Scroll back up if you need to.
These are the sizes that have been proven to work the best. Choose one that suits your style and the websites you are going to be advertising the banner on.
A new approach – video game banners?
When we think of banner ads we think about static ads on websites, right? That’s why we have mainly talked about that in this blog.
But we should mention another form of banner advertising – video game banners.
These are essentially banner ads that engage with their audience by having a simple video game integrated using HTML5. This is a pretty innovative way of using banner ads to great effect and they offer something interactive and different for the visitor. You might not have the budget to invest in video game website banner ads right now but it is something to think about in the future as they have shown to be very engaging and popular.
