Effectiveness of banners are declining.
Most web surfers can spot banners and have trained
themselves to ignore them. Cooperation between
webpage owner and advertiser is needed to resolve
this.
Billions of dollars are spent for website
promotion, over 75% is spent on banner ads. Large
corporations spent most of this money on branding.
For us in small business, only a very small group
know how to use banners to there full potential.
-Tips for the Webpage Owner-
Page design and banner placement are
vital for a higher click-through ratio with affiliate
banners for the webpage owner. If you use banners,
build your site around them to get maximum benefit.
Why use banners if your not getting some form
of payment?
Banner placement within the first screen
a user sees will pull higher than those placed
further down a web page (requiring a visitor to
scroll down to see it). Most banners at the top
of a page are ignored.
Banners placed 1/3 down the page are
more effective. Banners (or buttons) placed on
the lower right side of the screen (near the scroll
bar) pull twice as much than banners placed at
the top of the page.
Do not let the banners take your customers
from your pages. Have them open up a new window
to take them to the banner site. Use the 'target="_blank"'
attribute in the link tag to accomplish this.
Pop up banners are a nuisance. Alternative...
use 'Pop Under Banners'. Using javascript to open
the banner in the main window, include 'self.focus();'
to keep the main window on top. The viewer eventually
sees your banner and is less annoyed.
If you are using banners for reciprocal
linking, give webpage owners a choice of banners
and sizes that fit their site and tastes.
Test personalized ad text with affiliates
buttons to increase click-through ratio.
-Tips for the Advertiser-
Branding banners can add long-term awareness
value. They don’t lend themselves an immediate
click-through response, but are an important overall
online brand building strategy.
So...
You must grab your visitors attention
in a couple seconds. This is one reason why large
banners are ineffective. Visitors will not wait
for them to load. Keep the banner size less than
10k. Getting attention not only means a fast loading
banner, but one that catches the eye.
Animation... if you use it, incorporate
horizontal movement. Evolution has engineered
the human eye to be sensitive to horizontal motion
as a survival trait.
Interactive features (if available) draw
curiosity. The FreeLotto banner that allows you
to scrape the tickets is a great interactive banner.
Including text like "click here" to
your banner, makes it clear to the viewer what
they are supposed to do. Try a blue border, implying
the whole banner is clickable.
The most important word in advertising?
F-R-E-E! "Final Offer" or other time dependent
phrases may prompt users to click now. Add clickable
text below your banner ("Your Link to Happiness").
Ask a question. For example, 'Can Ginko
Biloba increase my memory potential? Visit Stacy's
Herbal Shop to find out!' Spark interest, and
the visitor will click the banner for the answer.
Use ALT attribute in the image tags
of your banners. Many people surf with images
turned off. The ALT attribute will describe the
content of the banner and can bring people to
your site, even if they can't see the image!
Target your banner to similar websites.
Your banner will pull better when associated with
an appropriately key worded websites.
Do you want antique shoppers to visit
your site? Choose a banner exchange for antiques.
If the banner implies an offer, product, or service
presented within specific and targeted context,
that banner will get clicked more often.
Overall, surfers refuse to click on banners
because banners look like... banners.
A secret to try... make banners that
don't look like banners. Make a promise with your
banner ad, and deliver. Your visitor will not
be irritated by being "fooled" so long as they
ultimately get what was promised. If the surfer
doesn't get what s/he was looking for you will
see a very poor conversion ratio.
Banners that look like internet interface
elements (drop down menus and other elements customers
are accustomed to clicking on) are known to generate
high click-through rates.
Change your banners often. After a few
hundred thousand impressions a banner becomes
stale and it's click-through rate will drop. Be
systematic. Track your banners constantly.
You need to know what works and what
doesn't, and that this can change daily. Keep
those banners that work well so as to rotate them
back at a later date.
Banners take up valuable web real estate.
Do you have high traffic pages you are failing
to place ads on? What are your CGI 'on the fly'
pages doing? Your search pages are prime also.
You are not limited to banners. Use your
favorite search engine to find button exchanges
and link exchanges as well. Check out these sites
for free exchanges.
http://www.123buttons.com/
http://www.go2mypage.com/bp/
http://up4u.com/ez/
http://www.popunder.com/
http://www.buttonxchange.com/
http://www.tulipxchange.com/
http://site.linkbuddies.com/
http://ban-x.com/
Let's not leave without a few tools
to make our banners with. These tools can be used
for other applications as well. Be creative.
MS Gif Animator
http://mrzone.com/freeware/microgif.html
3D GIF Designer
http://www.pysoft.com/downloads_fr.html
Harm's Tiles http://www.users.qwest.net/~sharman1/stile99.htm
Web Paint
http://www.barentsnett.no/webpaint/
Banners are still being used, though
their potency is diminishing, nevertheless haven't
you seen banners and buttons that caught your
eye? The limitation to using banners are yourself,
but isn't this is true of anything.
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Dale Sexton owns & operates 'PageCrafters.net',
&
publishes 'Small Business Tools magazine'. Both
focus
on tools & tips for small business. mailto:pagecrafters@pagecrafters.net
Sign up for 'SBT magazine' at:
http://pagecrafters.net/newsletter.html
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