People always want to know how we create banners that consistently get good click through ratios - or more accurately why the banner that they created, isn't bringing in the hits - so we decided to create this primer.
The most important thing:
You have to grab the viewer's attention and grab it fast, in less than 20 seconds by most accounts. This means having a banner that loads fast, if it takes 20 seconds to load it's wasted.
With this in mind you'll want to keep your banners file size down to a minimum. It takes some experience to be able to produce a high quality banner with a low file size. This also means that, for whatever reason, the viewer has to notice the banner. How many times have you clicked on a banner? How many times have you surfed and been oblivious to banners. Why did you click on the banners that you have clicked on?
Animation:
A recent ZDNet article indicated that a study concluded animated ads have a 18-40% higher click-through rates compared with static ones. Animated banners tend to get noticed more and therefore stand better chances of being clicked, and while this is the objective you have to keep in mind that the banner also says something about who you are. Sometimes there is a very fine line between effective and obnoxious.
To color on not to color:
The colors choice that you make for your ad graphic is very important as it can work for you or against you. You'll have to limit your palette to keep the file size low and stay away from dark text on a dark background. Colors such a bright red and yellow tend to do better than drab colors like brown and gray.
Don't keep beating a dead banner:
The forementioned study also concluded that ad banners effectiveness increased noticiably when the banners were frequently changed. You banner's response rates usually decrease by the second to third time someone sees it. We recommend that you rotate several versions of your banners every few weeks.
KeyWords & Experimentation :
While the words "Click Here" and "Free" are not magic bullets, they do often help a banner get a get better response rates. Of course, if you have nothing free to offer, don't use the word "Free". We don't do "Trick" banners.
The bottom line is that making effective ad graphics can be very involved - experiment , keep good performance stats, enjoy the creative process.
