A powerful advertising tool is the one which grabs attention instantly and conveys the message within fraction of a second, and when we are talking about such effective advertising tools we cannot afford to overlook banner ads. Banner ads have been in the advertising industry right from its inception and they have very well played a major role in gathering the target audience. This tool is so effective that even till date its potential is exploited by everybody who wants to be put on the map. Banner ads definitely put your name out there but you need to know the tricks of the trade to get the desired publicity.
Banner ads are extremely effective in directing traffic to your enterprise if only you get it right and not try too hard. There are ways to get your Banner noticed and if you master these ways you can even make your own banner and save a bundle of monies. Myriads of advertising agencies generate exorbitant revenues from just advising on how to get it right with Banner ads, but if you are in no mood to burn a hole in your pocket you can follow these basic steps and become a know-all in making banner ads.
1 Research never hurts.
Most of us are not blessed with creativity and more often than not we depend on others to get inspiration. It is only wise to look around and get an idea of how certain banners fare in the market, this market intelligence will help you in understanding the dos and don’ts. You can pick up the best examples available with you, draw inspiration from them and make your own Banner ad. You can study the color code that grabs attention, appropriate font size to make your banner look flashy and the basic size of a banner. Make sure that the purpose of doing this research is to seek inspiration and not promote plagiarism, to avoid copyright hassles do not pick designs from other banners.
2 Carefully pick the content of your banner.
While making banner ads it must be kept in mind that its purpose is to broadcast the essence hence do not make it look like a catalogue. Pick a clear message that conveys the purpose of the advertisement, it should be strong and be able to make the desired impact. This part of the banner making process is the trickiest part as it involves a lot of brainstorming and you cannot afford to slip here. Discuss the caption with your critics and check whether you get the desire response or not. You can come up with a clear message only if you thoroughly understand your product and have a clear idea about benefits you are offering to your customers.
3 Limit the file size to limit the wait.
Most of the viewers have a wandering eye and do not spare more than a fraction of a second to check banner ads and it becomes a challenge to make a lasting impression if your banner ad takes long to load. Make sure that the file size is minimum to avoid the frustration while it loads, something to the tune of 12 kilobytes is considered standard. To achieve an optimum size you can even try to limit the number of colors in the banner ad and have it saved as a GIF file. When it comes to file size the less the better, it helps the banner ad to show up instantly as soon as the page loads.
4 Go easy on animation.
As much fun it may be to look at, too much animation can make your banner ad look flimsy and spoil the desired effect. You must use animation only if it is indispensible to the advertisement campaign. Animation depends on creativity and free will so it is possible that you may think of just anything and try to get it animated, while doing so make sure you do not offend the viewers. Using animation is a tricky business because some relate to it easily while others find it difficult to understand and may get offended.
Animation speed is another important parameter which should be considered while including animations in banner ads. Let us face it, no one likes a continuous distraction on a page for too long and more often viewers tend to close the page. To avoid the animation on your banner ad look annoying make sure that it is changes at a moderate pace and stops after three cycles of repetition.
5 Be sure about the color scheme that you use.
Picking colors for a banner ad can be a tedious task, especially when you do not have a fixed color scheme. You can do a little research to find out how customers react to certain colors and also pick the most popular color schemes. With this activity you will shortlist the best color schemes available, now to pick from this pool of color schemes you can check which color scheme identifies the most with the product that you are selling. Try not to use many colors because it increases the file size. Steer clear of universal mismatches like red and green, black and brown, etc. Picking subtle shades for background dark shades for the font is a safe bet .
6 Choose an appropriate font size.
When you put a display message on a banner ad you expect it to get noticed and not mingle with the content of the website it is displayed on. To ensure that it strikes the right note with the viewer you must increase the font size as compared to that of the rest of the text displayed on the website.
You can also use variable font size to focus on the power words like “free” , “incredible”, “offer” this works very well in focusing on the major focus points of your campaign. Large fonts on a banner ad are acceptable but don’t go overboard with it and make a banner which needs to be scrolled up and down.
7 Choose a suitable platform for your Banner ads
The basic purpose of advertising is to appeal to a certain demographic, it is imperative that you choose the right platform for your banner ad to get the desired traffic or else your efforts will go in vain. Banner ads will not serve the purpose of attracting your target audience if they are displayed on irrelevant websites, they should be put on websites which are frequented by your desired demographic. You may use Google Analytics to find out where the majority of the traffic on your website is coming from, this will give you a lead for posting your banner ads.
8 Do not clutter your banner ads
Standing clutter is not an easy job and certainly not easy for viewers of a website. If a banner ad has a lot to offer, more often than not, the main message gets lost. One has to be very careful while adding elements to a banner as they can make or break an impression within no time. Elements like pictures, text messages and animation are usually very appealing and also solve the purpose of conveying the desired message if chosen tactfully. All the elements used in a banner should jibe well with each other and should add meaning to the main message rather than acting as separate entities in themselves and distorting the main message.
9 Choice of words does matter.
Do not beef up your banner content with negatives and double negatives, mind you, it is still considered an abomination by literary geniuses. Most of the critics are well read and literary experts and if you manage to please them you can expect a substantial boost to your business. A word of praise coming from a critic is more believable than it coming from anyone else. Besides, double negative complicates a sentence and makes it difficult to comprehend for the target audience.
10 In a banner ad there is no scope for spelling mistakes and grammatical errors.
Many customers are critical about spelling mistakes and they immediately form a judgment about your brand depending on one trivial error in banner ads. This is one segment of advertising where there is no scope for errors, especially literary errors. It is advisable to proof read the display message with a clear mind so that no mistakes are left unattended.
