I’m constantly being hounded by clients and customers about how to improve their banner ad click through rates so I figured I’d write a post to share some ways I personally use to increase conversions and drive up my ROI’s.
Now, these might seem a little basic at first but it’s surprising how many people I see out there who fail to implement even the most basic of banner structures. If you can begin to start implementing these in your campaigns I’m quite positive your click-throughs will begin to improve.
Employ Action Words
Use action words like “FREE” and “Click Here” in your banners with an actual press here button graphic on your banner.
By offering something “FREE” in your message incentivises the reader to click on your banner.
Banners with “Click Here” teasers and similar action phrases are a simple way to increase click-throughs.
Use Punchy Headlines
A short and punchy banner headline makes a world of difference. Always load your headline with benefit driven statements – offer solutions to the challenges that your customers face.
If you sell diet products, try “Lose 10 pounds in four weeks FREE!”. Work on a winning combination of text and graphics in your banner ad and you’re bound to see improvements.
Animated Banners vs. Static Banners
Animated banners almost always outperform their static counterparts by more than 100%. Internet surfers are more likely to notice banners that are animated, as apposed to static. Example: If you have the words “Click Here” flashing in your banner, it will perform better than a static version.
Adopt Better Designs
Many of us are not graphic artists. We can create simple banners but it is hard to match the work of a professional graphic artist. You should engage a professional banner ad designer to create your banners. Expect to invest $50-80 per banner.
The standard sizes for banner ads are 728×90 pixels, 300×250pixels and 468×60 pixels. I recommend that you aim to design a medium rectangle first (300×250pixels) and aim to make this one work before experimenting with the others as this size has proven to be the most effective. But as always, test test test. If you aren’t testing and tracking your metrics, you may be losing out. Every site is different and what works on one site my not work for another.
Try Trick Banners
These banners resemble Windows dialog boxes, scroll bars, submit buttons or blue-coloured underlined hyperlinks. They attract you to click on the dialog boxes and scroll bars – which you are already accustomed to doing with the Windows operating system. If you use trick banners with short and punchy headlines, you can get click-throughs above 10.0%!
Reduce Your Banner File Sizes
Aim to reduce your banner file size to less than 15k. The last thing a surfer wants is a slow-loading webpage. Most websites and banner exchanges do not allow excessively large banners anyway, so it’s good practice to do this with each and every banner you create. Simply optimize your banner file size through your graphic software or an online graphic optimizer.
Rotate Your Banners Regularly
Always have 2 or more banners to promote each product. A banner usually burns out after a surfer has seen it 3 times. They will ignore (if not hate) banners which they see repeatedly. If your click-through is steadily declining, then it is time to rotate your banners and throw something new out. Always keep your market entertained.
Target Your Banners
Place your banners on websites visited by your potential customers. If you promote gourmet coffees, place your banners on sites targeted at gourmet coffee drinkers. The quality of leads generated are higher, and more likely to result in sales.
Running your banners on targeted sites generally yield higher click-throughs and ROI. You are reaching people who are most interested in what you have to offer. Of course, you can try websites with general audience if they generate substantial ROI.
Monitor Your Banners’ Performance
Make it a point to check on your banners’ performance every few days. Monitor the click-through rate. The click-through tells you how well your banner performs. Most banners fetch a click-through of between 0.8% to 2.0%. If your banner gets more than 2.0%, it is doing a pretty well.
By monitoring your banners’ performance, you can kill under-performing banners before they waste away your advertising dollars. Keep testing, and always aim to beat your control.
Do Your Mathematics
Do your mathematics for each banner advertising campaign. Calculate the cost-per-visitor, cost-per-sale and return-on-investment ratios.
For example: If a website charges you $20 per thousand impressions ($20/CPM), and you get a 2.0% click-through (20 visitors), your cost-per-visitor is $1.00 ($20 / 20 visitors).
And if 1 in every 10 visitors buys your product, your cost-per-sale is $10.00 ($20 / 2 sales).
So if each sale of your product produces a gross profit of $15, then your net profit per-sale will be $5.00 ($15 gross profit – $10 cost-per-sale).
Your return-on-investment, before non-marketing expenses, is 50.0% ($10.00 total net profits / $20 investment). This campaign is profitable!
In conclusion, always try to advertise on different sites with different banners and with the purpose of trying to find a winning combination that can yield the highest ROI. Comparing Deal A which yields an ROI of 20% to Deal B that yields 60%, your advertising dollars work three times harder (and profitable) with Deal B!
If you have more to add to this list I would love to hear them. Please make a comment below and let me know your thoughts.
To higher profits!
For creating your own simple banner ads FREE, I recommend http://www.bannercreator.nu/banner-maker.html and/or http://www.animationonline.com/
For hiring an expert to create profressional looking banners for you, I recommend http://99designs.com/
If you are an affiliate and want to discover the amazing traffic secrets super affiliates and top fortune 500 companies use to flood their websites with cheap high converting clicks using banner ads, I highly recommend Banner Ad Blueprint
