It was discovered that banner designs can be the most annoying form of web advertisements after pop ups and pop-unders. However, many advertisers still report that the banners are still their most effective tool. First of all not all banner designs are annoying. Each day we often come across various informative, suggestive, thought provoking, interesting and brilliant designs. The key that small businesses, advertisers and marketers need to understand that in order to be effective their design needs to be less annoying and more web friendly or I would say more audience friendly.

Lets first understand the anatomy of a horrible banner design; it’s design is noisy, offensive, unintelligent, dumb and boring, the banner makes false promises and fraudulently invites the user to click it by displaying deceptive images. Bad, bad, bad!

To make a banner design a really effective marketing tool we need to remove all the elements that make our banner annoying and instead we should add elements that would make our banner design more click-able and likable. Think of your banner ad as an online billboard (with only 3 seconds to read it)

Colors, using colors that do not hurt the eyes of the viewer is something that cannot be stressed more. Using red as a banner color background influences impulse buying, using brown or green as a background color influences trust and should take the visitor to a “non-product” page, they should be landing on a page that describes the services you offer. I’ll write more on this later!

Animations, it is wonderful to know that an advertiser paid extra money to get an animated banner design. Even though most designers would tell you that faster animations make a banner less click-able. But businesses believe that the designers are avoiding extra work, hence they insist on more animation. Please note that a banner that animates too fast not only looks ugly but is less click-able. Use simple animations that are not too fast and not too distracting, for instance try using a 2 panel animation, i.e. “question” for panel 1 and “answer” for panel 2, it’s educational and keeps the user engaged.

Fraudulent banners are the most offensive ones. These are the banner designs that pretend to look like an operating system menu and warning the user about some potential threat or an announcement that they have won something. There are even banners that offer people instant wealth, fame and glory. We all wish the world was that easy. So please stop making a fool of yourself no one is actually going to click on such a banner with an intention of becoming a customer.

Better Banners Mean More Business

Here are some essential guidelines for creating effective banner ads:

1. Ask for Action. Your banner should say ‘Click Here Now!’ or invite the viewer to visit for more information. Arrows, targets, anything that implies action or movement to the hyperlinked site will improve response.

2. Use complex graphics sparingly, but effectively. Graphics can convey a great deal of information in a short time, but can also dramatically increase your file size. The fact is that smaller gifs get downloaded quicker and more frequently, and don’t get halted in midstream by impatient surfers. Optimize your banners using some of the tools noted below, such as Gif Wizard.

3. In most cases, research indicates that unbranded ads generate more clicks. Hmmm. Create mystery, ask a question, imply missing information available with a click. All these generate inquiry in your viewers.

4. Animated banners are more effective than static banners, but as with graphics, use good judgement. Ads that are too busy increase file size, and can confuse the viewer. Market a single concept, even if it is an umbrella for many other products and services. For instance, in our banner ads, we market resources for Internet Business People using the phrase “Master The Internet”. Now this includes our training products, our newsletter, free tools and resources on our website, and many other subjects. But the single concept we market is to Master The Internet.

5. Change your banners frequently. Web surfers are very unlikely to follow a banner link after seeing it the third or fourth time. Your click through rate will fall from an initial high to almost nothing as it is viewed between 100,000 and 200,000 times.

6. Strongly consider using targeted advertising. For obvious reasons, targeted ads pull much better. In spite of higher costs for the targeted ads, the much higher click-though rates result in a typically lower cost per visitor.

7. Consider adding a blue border around your banner – strongly suggesting the banner is a clickable link (as of course it is).

8. Use the word FREE, and create urgency by suggesting time limits or quantity limits.

9. Larger is better. Some banner exchanges offer 468X68 pixel banners, while others limit the size to 400X40 or similar. All other things being equal, the larger sized banner will generate a higher click through ratio. But remember to try and keep file size small

I hope this helps

-Dave Englund