Make Your Own Banners

Banner advertising is a website advertising and promotion strategy that can take place on many sites such as Facebook, Yahoo and Google (via Adwords), as well as on personal websites that are affiliate marketing sites or personal sites that can promote other linked products.

There are four major considerations for successful banner advertising:

1. Banner Design:

By creating the right kind of design for the banner ads a banner can bring in a lot of business. To be able to make an effective design, a little research as to what is working and what is popular should be done. Currently animated banner makers produce effective results.

Many people do not click on the loud flashy banners like they used to. Keeping with a simpler design that is reflective of the environment that the banner is going to be in will help to make them more “click friendly.” Utilize banner maker software that is user friendly and creates a striking advertisement.

2. Analyzing:

Monitoring the results of your banner advertisement by testing and measuring will help to determine what increases sales and what doesn’t. Instead of paying for the advertisement to be shown every hour of the day, check to see if there are certain hours that are bringing in more clicks. It will be more cost effective to run the advertisement only during the hours that are more productive.
Also, if you are running a couple different ads, be sure to analyze by split testing which one performs better. This is helpful when considering improving the design of newer advertisements. Anything that can help give a good idea of how many customers are actually responding to the banners will make your advertising more potent.

3. Content:

It is important to consider the content of the banner advertisement. The look of the banner may draw a potential customer’s eye, but what it says is going to ultimately determine whether they are going to click on it. A good rule of thumb is to find a way to make the reader of the banner want more. Tell them why they should go to your site.

For instance, telling them they will get something of value free, such as an e-book  is a great way to increase the performance of the banner.

4. Position:

Always consider the placement of the ad as well – what location would best target the searching and buying audience. If the banner is not placed to catch the eye of the intended audience, then the banner will not be able to work as effectively. Put yourself in your customers’ shoes. What do they search for? What sites do they frequent? A little research as to the best way to reach your potential customers will go a long way.

Follow these four basic guidelines to make your own banners work for you!