Digital Media News

Although some people believe that banner ads are losing their relevancy - the statistics suggest otherwise, with approximately 64% of marketers increasing the amount of money they spent on display advertising in 2013. This year, display advertising is forecast to grow by a further 21% - but how do you make sure that your display creative is as effective as it should be?

Advertisement fatigue and banner blindness are two common, and highly detrimental problems in the world of display advertising. Where banner blindness describes a users' tendency to ignore ads because they have grown used to the same old format, ad fatigue refers to the decline in click through rate and conversion after banners have been left to run for a certain amount of time. The truth is that no matter how exciting your creative may be when you first design it - after a while it will lose its novelty, and users will start to lose interest

So what can you do to make sure that your advertisements stay engaging for as long as possible? The following 5 tips should help you to kick start your advertising campaign, and avoid the strain of banner ad fatigue.

Banner ads are almost as old as the Internet itself. And they’re still alive and kicking. The trouble is, there are a number of issues with banner ads. If you get them wrong, at best you’re wasting your time; at worst, you’re butchering your brand.

Many online advertising experts dislike banner ads. Lots of customers even hate them. But here’s the thing: they can work extremely well. Online display advertising is an integral part of any multichannel campaign. Thanks to data and advanced analyzing techniques, businesses can verify that millions of ad impressions help drive traffic, conjure up leads and even convert.

It’s almost like it’s fashionable to slam banner ads. Opinion pieces about the sheer ineffectiveness of banner ads are commonplace, but consumer behavior often tells a different story. The truth is probably somewhere in the middle. Banner ads are like any other form of advertising. They can be compelling, efficient and profitable, or intrusive, ugly and repetitive, all depending on how you design them.

Banner ads go back a long way. In fact, the very first banner ad appeared on hotwired.com (now Wired.com) on 27 October, 1994. The copy read: “Have you ever clicked your mouse right here? You will.” And there was an arrow pointing to the right-hand side of the ad.

To say that the ad was successful is an understatement. In the first four months of its existence, 44% of those who saw it clicked on it. How CEOs would kill for that sort of click-through rate in today’s online advertising campaigns, eh? Certainly the client, AT&T, were impressed.

Let’s put that stat into perspective. Research tells us that only around 4 people out of every 10,000 click on a banner advertisement these days. Or, put another way, why did that first banner ad generate more clicks with 10 impressions than the average banner ad in 2015 generates with 10,000 impressions (besides that it was a new concept and piece of advertising content that no one had ever seen before)?

Online advertising tends to be one of those things that you either get right spectacularly well, or horribly wrong. Banner ads perhaps represent this situation perfectly. Online advertising and banner ads enjoy their fair share of trends and it’s important to keep up to date with what’s hot and what’s not. Having said that, there are 5 staple bits of information about banner ads that will stand the test of time.

1. Make sure that your banner ads are laser-targeted.

It’s common sense, yet a common mistake. There’s no point creating a banner ad if it’s not going to reach your target market. Therefore, picking which websites your banner ad sits on is crucial. Do some research!

How to Avoid Making Ugly Banner Ads That Are Annoying as Kimmy Gibbler on Speed. You know, Full House—aka best show ever except for that menacing Kimmy. Any way, in order to prevent your target market from shrieking in horror and retreating from your banner as soon as possible, we are going to go over a few tips on how to create and design the best display ads.

Be Concise

Like a billboard, you don’t have much space with which to express the gamut of your emotions—or gamut of words explaining your product, deal, promotion, brand, etc, etc, etc. See how I went on and on right there? It’s annoying isn’t it? Well your ad will be annoying to your target market if you barrage them with words (or photos or flashing anything). Basically, don’t go overkill. The more concise and clear you can be, the better.

Good

Bad

Think about what is the most pertinent information to include, and if you have some room for creativity then go for it. But don’t go for it too much and always try to . . .

The online world of advertising as we used to know it has changed over the recent decades. Where banner ads used to earn about a 44% CTR, today, these ads have to work much harder if they want to get the attention of an audience, and convince that audience to progress into action. Although trying out new creative solutions and thinking outside of the box with your banner creations can help, one of the best solutions for developing successful banner ads lies within the welcoming arms of Google Analytics.

If you've been spending your advertising budget on just about any kind of advertising, then one of the most important things you'll need to ensure that you're not simply wasting your money, is follow and analyze the performance of those ads. Although you may not necessarily make your banner ads directly through Google analytics, you can use those analytics to improve the banner creatives you do create, and increase your chances of click-through and conversions.