PRODUCING THE BANNER AD

The importance of CONCEPT
Compelling Banner or online ad development is 90% concept and 10% execution/design.

Any graphics design firm or person with a graphics program can create a pretty graphic.

Not every company can create an effective online advertisement that gets results.  

ESSENTIAL CONTENT
Name of product
Colour
Branding
Tag line
Simplicity
Include the url (even if they don't click through they'll remember it)

Animation
Animated banners out-perform stationary banners up to 4 to 1

ALT tags
The importance of the alt text is crucial for the estimated 10-15% traversing the internet with their graphics off.

Colour
People respond more to bright colours: blue, green, and yellow, or certain colour combinations, like a rich yellow on dark blue.
Some audiences respond better to certain colours;

eg: dark rich colours might appeal to the sophisticated set
while bright and trendy colours can grab the attention of the hip crowd.

Bad colours: white, red, and black have recently fallen in disfavour, they might be utilised if they provide a level of contrast or distinction in the context of the ad.

Font choice

Use simple familiar fonts.

Banner ads are not the place for those tasty fonts as viewers are bombarded with information and messages on the Web.

Optimise GIF animations
The faster an ad appears, the more chance it will have to be seen and read. reduce the number of colours in the ad and by employing interframe transparency Animation programs that automate optimisation include -- Gamani's GIF Movie Gear, Extensis' PhotoAnimator, Digital Frontier's HVS Animator Pro, Boxtop Software's GIFmation, and Ulead's GIF Animator. If you're using GIF Construction Set or GifBuilder, then your banner ad animations are probably overly large.

Call to Action
You'll get more clicks with 'Click Here" or "Free" on them Stay close to content:
You'll get more clicks on ads that relate to what's on the page or site.

Technology
Be sure that any alternative technology for banner ads remains reasonably accessible and fast.
These requirements largely apply to Java, DHTML, and Shockwave. One of the more promising emerging alternatives to the GIF animation is Macromedia Flash. Flash's ability to deliver more robust animations in real or near real time make it an appealing alternative. While Flash requires a plug-in, Macromedia has succeeded in making the Flash plug-in one of the most successfully distributed plug-ins on the Web. In 1997 Flash outpaced even Shockwave by almost 10 million with 23.6 million downloads. Macromedia reports 4.1 million downloads of the Flash player in January 1998 alone.

Flash offers several appealing things for Web-based advertising. For example, full screen animations with streaming audio, which emulate standard television ads, are even possible with Flash, compliments of Macromedia's new partnership with Real Networks in the form of Real Flash. However, smaller Flash-based ads are far more viable.

An increasingly popular alternative to the standard banner ad, employed at such sites as the Sci-Fi Channel and IBM, is to display a Flash-based ad in a separate small browser window. The ad plays once, like a television ad, and then the small window is closed using JavaScript.   OLD METHODS / HINTS

"click here!"
can dramatically boost response

Add clickable text
*below* the banner ("click here for xyz offer")

Present a variety of messages
in the same visual style

Cryptic messages on banners boosts click-through

Questions
Banners that pose a question elicit a 16% higher click-through.

Call-to-action banners increase click-through by 15%.

The word *free*
boosts click-through 10-35% depending highly on what's being offered

Bright colours:
blue, green, yellow increase clicks, red, white, and black are less effective.

  Where Do I Point This Thing?
Web ads don't always need to point to your home page.

• If you want to create leads, then point the banner directly to your forms.
• If you want to promote a new product, then point the ad to the product specs page or to a download page.
• If you're promoting content, then direct surfers directly to it. Surfers will appreciate the more direct approach and your main page statistics will increase as a by-product of your increased customer loyalty.

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