Effectiveness of banners are declining. Most web surfers can spot banners and have trained themselves to ignore them. Cooperation between webpage owner and advertiser is needed to resolve this.Billions of dollars are spent for website promotion, over 75% is spent on banner ads. Large corporations spent most of this money on branding. For us in small business, only a very small group know how to use banners to there full potential.
-Tips for
Webpage Owner-
Page design and banner placement are vital for a higher click-through ratio with affiliate banners for webpage owner. If you use banners, build your site around them to get maximum benefit. Why use banners if your not getting some form of payment?
Banner placement within first screen a user sees will pull higher than those placed further down a web page (requiring a visitor to scroll down to see it). Most banners at top of a page are ignored.
Banners placed 1/3 down page are more effective. Banners (or buttons) placed on lower right side of screen (near scroll bar) pull twice as much than banners placed at top of page.
Do not let banners take your customers from your pages. Have them open up a new window to take them to banner site. Use 'target="_blank"' attribute in link tag to accomplish this.
Pop up banners are a nuisance. Alternative... use 'Pop Under Banners'. Using javascript to open banner in main window, include 'self.focus();' to keep main window on top. The viewer eventually sees your banner and is less annoyed.
If you are using banners for reciprocal linking, give webpage owners a choice of banners and sizes that fit their site and tastes.
Test personalized ad text with affiliates buttons to increase click-through ratio.
-Tips for Advertiser-
Branding banners can add long-term awareness value. They don't lend themselves an immediate click-through response, but are an important overall online brand building strategy.
So...
You must grab your visitors attention in a couple seconds. This is one reason why large banners are ineffective. Visitors will not wait for them to load. Keep banner size less than 10k. Getting attention not only means a fast loading banner, but one that catches eye.
Animation... if you use it, incorporate horizontal movement. Evolution has engineered human eye to be sensitive to horizontal motion as a survival trait.
Interactive features (if available) draw curiosity. The FreeLotto banner that allows you to scrape tickets is a great interactive banner.
Including text like "click here" to your banner, makes it clear to viewer what they are supposed to do. Try a blue border, implying whole banner is clickable.
The most important word in advertising? F-R-E-E! "Final Offer" or other time dependent phrases may prompt users to click now. Add clickable text below your banner ("Your Link to Happiness").
