Definition: This refers to the rectangular ads that are sometimes vertical or horizontal and placed at the top, bottom, or side of a website.
Explanation:
Headlines, images, and even banner ads are what most website visitors see first since it functions to grab their attention effectively.
Most companies like to place these ads in high-traffic places to establish brand awareness and get users to click on them.
In fact, they even spend time working on banner ads just to make their campaigns more effective.
What are banner ads in marketing?
Banner ads come in different shapes and sizes and they are very effective in digital marketing since it attracts an audience.
Big companies are very much willing to pay more just to get an ad displayed on a website.
Its two primary goals are to establish brand awareness and increasing the click-through rate of a website.
In affiliate marketing, banner ads help showcase the products or services that the affiliate marketer is trying to promote.
Sometimes you may even get extra commissions for every sale, thus, resulting in a good amount of conversions especially when they already have a well-established website.
A standard display ad comes in bright attractive colors that lure visitors to learn more about the ad or retarget potential clients.
Most of the time, banner ads don’t come in long paragraphs as it only makes it less attractive to consumers.
Common types of banner ads
There are three different types of banner ads that you’ve probably seen somewhere already specifically: Standard, Interactive, and Animated.
Standard
These ads are simple ones that usually consist of an image of a product or person with attractive colors and no sound or video.
Interactive
An interactive ad is usually created for mobile games that get users to try a demo of the game interface to build interest and encourage them to click the CTA after 2 minutes of playing.
Animated
An animated banner ad can be a GIF or a short video (sometimes with sound) that instantly captures the attention of the audience.
What are the PROS and CONS of banner ads?
Banner ads may be beneficial for companies, however, it also comes with disadvantages that you need to be aware of in case you’re planning to try this form of digital advertising.
PROS
Cost-effective
Placing banner ads is a cost-effective strategy since it only takes a few cents for a thousand impressions.
Easier to reach potential customers
Since banner ads are placed in a high-traffic website, this makes it easier to reach and retarget prospects.
Easy to make
Banner ads are easier to make since everyone can use editing software, like Canva, to create one.
It also doesn’t require you to spend a thousand dollars since it doesn’t involve a team to make a banner ad.
CONS
Lower click-through rates
No matter how good your banner ad looks, if it doesn’t get prospects clicking an ad, it’s already considered a loss.
Limited
Banner ads limit the amount of content in an ad due to its size that’s why you need to be extra careful in writing taglines.
How to make banner ads effective
Banner ads may work like magic if comes with the right elements.
When you have these elements in any type of banner ad, this can work effectively and maximize all your marketing efforts.
Use engaging taglines
Just like headlines on websites, you need to have an engaging tagline that’s easy to remember, but also builds curiosity in your prospects.
Your tagline should be able to trigger their emotions to make an impact and it also has to use language that the general audience can easily understand.
Add high-quality visuals
The design and overall appearance of your banner ad can instantly grab the attention of your audience and adding bright colors that pop makes it even better.
However, some websites might not fit with the style of your ad, so you might have to redesign it again and not make it look like the odd one out (although that was your entire goal anyway: to stand out).
By the way, here are the different banner ad sizes that you can use on your next campaign:
- Medium rectangle (300 x 250)
- Large rectangle (336 x 280)
- Skyscraper (300 x 600)
- Mobile leaderboard (320 x 50)
- Leaderboard (728 x 90)
Keep it simple
Keeping your banner ads simple and short builds curiosity to your target audience especially when it’s combined with an engaging headline.
One trick to do this is to be clear and straight to the point so it instantly grabs the attention of prospects.
Call to action
Your CTA will be the one who invites or encourages your audience to take action by clicking an ad.
Missing a simple “Buy Now”, “Click here to get started”, or “Join Us” can affect the performance of your banner ads.
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