How To Increase The Effectiveness Of Your Banner Advertising.By Kevin Sinclair Many marketing experts are saying that banner advertising is losing its effectiveness. However, banners are still one of the most frequently used forms of advertising on the net today. In this article I will explore some ways that you can increase the effectiveness of your banner advertising. Change Your Banners Often Don't continue to use the same banner indefinitely. The more exposure it has, the lower the click through rate as people will have become used to seeing it. It is always a good idea to test different banners. I would recommend that you have a stock of 6 banners and change them every 5,000 impressions. Check on the results you are achieving. When testing your different banners, compare the results you get for animated and static banners. Usually animated banners will achieve a better click through. However, test this for your business and use the results to improve the traffic you are generating. Improve Your Banners Based on testing a number of different banners, use the results to look for ways to improve your banners. Ensure that each banner has a call to action such as the words "click here". To ensure that your banner loads quickly, it needs to be small in bytes. The longer your banner takes to load, the less chance it will be read. Headlines can make a huge difference to your response rate. Therefore, it is worth your effort in continually testing different headlines. The headline is what catches the attention of the reader. It also qualifies the prospect and can determine the quality of the traffic your site is receiving. When you have tested and proven an effective headline, continue to refine it. Don't stop looking for other headlines that may also be effective. You should never stop testing and trialing various options. Also, test the effect of different colors. For example, change the color of the text. Test the effect of underlining. Blue text underlined has been effective for some businesses. Change the color of your banner borders. Does this impact your response rate. Again, some businesses have found a blue border to be more effective than other colors. Don't forget to use the word "free"! On the internet, and in the off-line world, this is one of the most powerful advertising words. Test it in your banners and see if it improves their effectiveness. Lastly, you can test trick banners. I am sure you have seen examples of these on the net. You will need to exercise caution though to ensure than you don't damage your business image if using trick banners. Do a small test and check the results. Change Banner Exchanges It is worthwhile to try different banner exchanges rather than rely on one exchange. As each exchange usually has a different network of sites, one exchange may be more suitable to your business than another. My experience has been that a new exchange may lead to a doubling of my click through rate (how many people click on your banner compared to the number of exposures of your banner). When looking at alternative exchanges, check that they are reputable. Also, check that they have a reasonable sized network. Mark Welch maintains a very good listing of banner exchanges at http://www.markwelch.com/bannerad/ba_exchange.htm . It is worth checking this resource. Also, check the ratio of exposures provided by the exchange. The most common ratio offered is you provide 2 exposures of other banners to receive 1 exposure of your banner. This is often shown as a ratio of 2:1. See if you can obtain a better exposure ratio such as 3:2 or 4:3 or even 1:1. By obtaining more exposures of your banner, you can increase the amount of traffic you receive. Improve Your Targeting A number of banner exchanges offer the ability to target your banners. For example, some banner exchanges place your banner over their entire network. With targeting, you can specify what types of sites you want your banner shown on (or not shown on). Improving the targeting of your banner exposures can often lead to an improved click through rate. Conclusion It is possible to improve the effectiveness of your banner advertising. You will need to test various changes and ideas to see which are the most effective for your business. The ideas presented in this article should provide you with a number of options to consider.
Article by Kevin Sinclair, CPA, of Be Successful! Business & Personal Success Resources ( http://www.ksinclair.com/ ). He is the author of 2 free ebooks: "Success Secrets" & "How To Choose A Home Based Business". Kevin is also the publisher of "Be Successful News" - a free ezine dedicated to your online business success - to subscribe, visit http://www.ksinclair.com/pbs_news.htm |