Banners that work! (12)
I'm new STM. This is my first post on a topic here. I wanted to share my approach on banner design that I works. Anytime I start a new banner campaign, I first create a banner with just text. A strong headline made in blue hyperlink, ad description in black followed by a call to action button in red background and white text. A black border is a must. Banner without borders will usually get half the CTR. This simple approach has worked for me for many years and most of the time this banner will out perform any other design.
From here, I'll add images (sometimes images improve the ctr and sometime they don't do much), highlight or underline important text, play around with headings and call to action text and positing of the elements.
You should include some examples!
But yes, you make some good points:
1. Blue underlined text still has that psychological attachment to old school links, which seems to encourage clicking.
2. Button colours are important.
3. Borders to segregate ads from their surroundings often work well (not always). Sometimes making banners look less like ads - more seamless with sites - will improve CTRs.
Some examples.
https://www.seoclerk.com/pics/129431-3.png
http://www.universaltradingprofits.c...best-ban-2.png
What vertical have you found these to work best in? Going without an image in some niches (e.g. dating) would be pretty ballsy.
rebills, diet, skin, grant, surveys. For surveys, no image.
thanks for sharing the tips! i believe if you can include some simple animation like making the arrows moving towards the CTA button would help to increase the CTR.
MS Paint FTW!
Are those type of banners working for you? Conversion wise not CTR.
If those are your examples then I see that you are offering a banner design service (googled the tomatoe ad). That's why I'm asking. If they would convert you wouldn't offer 30 banners for $30 is my guess.
I don't want to step on your toes but I've tried banners like these and besides a decent CTR they did not generate any revenue for me.
It's a template from the banner ninjas pack
I see.
This is part of one of the Whitepapers I wrote that are handed out to designers when banner work is needed, hope it adds up to the thread 
Please excuse the grammar errors in english, noticing some now.
Introduction
Banners come in all shapes and sizes, each ad network has different requirements in terms of what’s allowed and what’s not. One of the most important things here is that they should be created and saved in a way that they can be reused in the future and that they are easily editable for other countries. Banners are often made in giant batches and thrown in groups just to check which one sticks, in my humble opinion that’s a very boring way of spending hard earned money. Banners are one of the most important aspects of a campaign, they are the trigger in a gun, they are the fire starters, the igniters of a potential sale, lead or action.
There are several factors that lead a banner to being succesful or a flake, during this particular process we will be covering some of them:
- a) A banner has to be appealing to click: Picture selection, color contrast and choice, borders, animations, even font choice are very important factors.
- b) A banner has to be working a particular angle, a way of urging the user to click in which there’s a hierarchy to tell the message.
- c) A banner needs to be part of a whole, it’s not a random occurrence happening from time to time by chance in a website, it’s part of a carefully crafted weapon of selling, part of a flow or a conversion funnel. It has to be understood as part of a concept in which if the tests are succesful, it’s message will be replicated to multiple other sizes and ad networks.
- d) A banner HAS TO ALWAYS STAND OUT FROM THE COMPETITION. There’s no other way to have an edge but to simply put a better message, a better “wrapping” for a similar product.
How to make a banner appealing to an user?
To fight banner blindness, the components below are crucial. If after research, it’s found that the competition is using a certain combination, the best option would be to avoid them to not have users think they come from the same advertiser or lead to the same website. If someone from the competition is using them, it’s weigth in the advertiser’s inventory should be evaluated. If they have a lot of presence, they probably have been copied already by others. If they are small competition, it’s always possible to out-do them.
A banner is physically divided in:
• Background color
• Text font
• Text color
• Text border
• Text border color
• Banner border
• Font selection
• Picture selection
• Message
• Call to action
• Choice of animation vs. still image
The body of a banner: The trap, what draws attention. What makes a user see it.
Background color / Text font / Text color / Text border / Text border color / Font selection / Banner border / Choice of animation vs. Still image.
The soul of a banner: The connection, what produces a click. What make a user buy.
Message: This is the choice of words for giving a message to a user. It should be intriguing, satisfy an urge or create one. It’s part of the campaign angle and should be carefully put together to not give the wrong impression and confuse the user during the campaign flow. It follows a hierarchy that’s strictly linked to the choices made in the body of the banner.
Call to action: Often encased in a fake button or disguised as a link with an underline in a popular web font like times new roman, verdana, helvetica or arial. Could be animated. It’s important to make a few variations of it to see which performs better.
Picture selection: Another VERY IMPORTANT item in a banner, the image or image animation chosen could make it a winner or a loser. Pictures that are often found to be of incredible traction are those related to the message and the demographic the message is pointed to. It should not just be appealing to you, but it should be so amazing that it appeals to the mass. We are looking for the espectacular only here, any less and a great idea can fail miserably.
Also always find this post on Attila's blog extremely helpful when explaining split testing to a designer:
http://iamattila.com/media-buying-10...nfographic.php
Hope it helps!
Originally Posted by webdev
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