Banners

Banners and Banner Placement

Despite much talk, banners are still a very viable form of promoting your message. The success of banner advertising is based on many things:

	Having a well-written banner. .
	Having a well-designed banner. .
	Banner placement.

Many folks join free banner networks or pay for banner impressions believing their banners will generate instant sales and unlimited revenue. Not true. While banners may stimulate people to buy from you, their chief goal is to generate interest. A banner is doing its job when it causes an end user to click-through to your site. If they buy something from you, that's gravy.

Banners come in many shapes and sizes, the most popular of which is a horizontal banner measuring 468 x 60 pixels and 256 colors. When designing a banner, it is important to design to generally acceptable standards. Too big, and it won't fit the available space. Too many colors, and it won't display properly for the average user. Too much animation, and it takes too long to load and the end user loses patience and moves on.

Words

A banner has very limited real estate. You can only fit so many words into the space. Even if you use small type (which is not advised), you are still limited. So great care must be taken in choosing the language you will use in your banner.

We strongly advise reading a few books about writing effective sales copy.

Design

Static

Simple banners display direct messages with a minimum of design complexity. In simple banners, the words are the message. You can increase your click through rates by using two tricks:

	Add the words "Click Here." You can make this trick work better by actually placing a picture of a button within the banner. If folks think it is interactive, they will be more tempted to click it to see what happens.
	By using a transparent background, the banner looks less like advertising and blends with the background of your web site.

Animated GIFs

Animated GIF banners consist of multiple frames -- like a film. When the frames are processed, all sorts of animation becomes possible:

	Words can change color. .
	Scenes can change. .
	There can be transitions between phrases. .
	Logos and objects can move.

The problems with animated GIFS, is that depending upon their design complexity (the number of frames) and the total size of the file, it can appear to take forever for the banner to load and run through its sequence of changes. If it takes too long to load, it can slow down an entire page causing an impatient surfer to stop the page load and move on. Animated GIF banners have their place, but care should be taken to decrease their size and load time.

Java/Javascript/Flash

Java, Javascript and Flash graphics allow more complicated graphical effects. Obviously, if there is more animation, the greater the chance for capturing the attention of a visitor and getting them to click-through.

Each of these technologies require some smarts to implement, and while there are many tools available to facilitate their design, the more graphic and programming knowledge you have, the better your chance for successfully creating an effective banner.

Placement

There are dozens of free banner networks. All work a little differently, but essentially rely on the swapping of banner space. You allow the banner network to use some free space on your web pages, and they, in turn, will place your banner on the pages of other participants in their network. For every click-through you generate for someone else's banner, you receive an equal of fractional number of banner displays on the sites of others.

Paid networks typically charge for view or click-throughs in the thousands, and they usually allow you to target your audience more accurately. In this fashion, you can select the types of sites your banner should be displayed on, and also limit the chances of competitors advertising inadvertently in your own web site.

Recommended Ebook

Want to learn everything you need to know to be successful and profitable with banners? We thought we knew it all until we read Scott Covert's incredible ebook about banners, design and placement. The man is a recognized industry expert, and now his knowledge can be yours. Click here for more information.

Services

If all this talk of banners seems too overwhelming, let us help you. We can design a variety of different, effective banners for your web site. To discuss your unique requirements, contact us today.