Banner ads have pretty much been around since the start of the internet and still remain an effective way to get your business in front of potential customers. With such a small space to showcase your business, what is it that will make someone want to click through to your site? Below I have listed a few things you should consider when creating your own ads.
Size/Format
Banner ads come in all shapes and sizes, varying depending on country and device. However, unless you have a very niche campaign target audience you are more than likely only going to need to stick to the standard sizes. The staple banner sizes tend to be 336 x 280, 300 x 250, 728 x 90, 300 x 600 and 320 x 100
Note:
When designing the banners keep in mind file size and format. Google allows 150 KB for ads and only accepts .JPEG .JPG .PNG and .GIF file formats.
Value Proposition
It’s tempting to plaster offers all over your ads, however, consumers may not want to be hammered with adverts whilst browsing the web. If they are looking to purchase something they will go out of their way to search for the product.
Instead, use your banner ads to sell your value proposition. If they are seeing your banners they are likely to have a need or want in something similar to your service, so half of your work is already done. Instead, use the space to tell them what makes your service/product different from your competitors and how your services will benefit them.
Also, think about how you approach your messaging. Depending on the goals of your campaign, you may benefit more from engaging with your potential customers. Consider asking the user to answer a question rather than trying to entice them into an action.
Keeping It Simple
Keep your banners simple. The ads should be made up of three elements; your brand, your message, and your call to action. Don’t dilute your message with unnecessary elements. Your message is the most important part of your adverts. It’s the thing that prospects are going to engage with and encourage them to click through.
Branding
In the minds of your potential customers, your brand plays a big part in what subconsciously makes the connection between your banner ads and your company. You should make sure that the banners are consistent with the rest of your business’s branding and adhere to any brand guidelines by carrying across any fonts, colours, or graphic elements. If you want to know more about brand consistency then check out my other post on brand consistency across the web.
Colour
Colour is not only important in relating the ads to your brand but also in getting your ads noticed. Using contrasting colours for buttons and backgrounds will enable them to stand out and attract the viewer to where you want them to go.
Another thing to think about (especially if you have targeted your ads to a specific site) is how the colouring in your adverts interact with the colours on the site on which they are going to be shown. If your banner ads have a black background and so does the site on which they are being shown on, they are likely to fade into the background.
Image & Font
Obviously, the lack of space when using banner adverts is tough to work with but think about the design elements you are using. Certain fonts will work better if you are trying to grab somebody’s attention, just like others will work better when shrunk down to fit in all of your information. If you already have a well-established brand and pretty legible fonts associated with it, include them but think about what content it allows you to include.
When thinking about images, consider the use of subject, space, shape and quality. Google disallows any ads containing images that aren’t relevant to the advert or are of low quality. The perfect image for a banner would lead the consumer’s eye towards the preferred action and leave enough space to fit your content and logo neatly around it. You want to get the viewer’s attention but a crazy, overly colourful, highly detailed image is likely to distort your text and take away from your overall message.
Face Value
Last but not least, consider how your banner ads look at a glance. The internet is full of spammy looking banner adverts and it could put potential customers off clicking through. Make sure your banners appear trustworthy. If you have vast amounts of deal offers plastered all over your banners, it’s likely to put off any potential customers. The spammy, unthought-out or old fashioned design will cause them to lose trust in the quality of your brand and put them off interacting with your ad. Project your message through the clever use of design and content and avoid coming across as an untrustworthy link.
