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There are many factors to consider when designing your banner ad. These include
but are now limited to:
Size of Banner
One of the first things you need to decide when designing a banner is the size
of the banner. This is very important as you need to know exactly how much space
you have to work with. There are standard sizes for banners, the most popular of
which are shown below:
Leader Board
728 x 90 Pixels - Not shown here as it's too large to fit.
Banner
Half Banner
In most cases the size of the banner will be determined by the publisher of your
ad, i.e. the website that will show your advert.
File Format of Banner
There are many file formats to chose from and which one you chose will mostly be
dependent on what you want to do with the advertisement. For example if you'd like
to incorporate animation into your banner ad you should chose a file format such as
.gif or flash, which actually supports animations. You will also need to keep in mind
the number of colors the file format supports. For example png-8 supports a maximum
of 256 colors, which means that it isn't suitable for banners that use a photograph
for part of it etc...
Other than those limitations you should try and keep the file size to a minimum.
A banner ad that takes a long time to load won't be appreciated by either the publisher
nor the visitor and won't prove too effective.
Static / Animated Banner Image
Here are 2 banner ads from text-link-ads:
Static Banner
Animated Banner
First of all it should be pointed out that these 2 ads are both very well
designed banner ads. They are clean & attractive with a very concise message.
If you actually take a closer look then you'd see that these images are also
quite small (6kb + 7.5kb), which reduces the load time, which has it's advantages
as discussed before. The banner also makes use of a logo to clearly distinguish
this website from others.
Put all that aside and just consider the effect the animation has on
attracting your attention. At first the animated image looks like a static
banner ad. It only changes after a short delay which really helps it become
more visible to the visitor.
In general it can be said that animated banners are much more effective
in terms of enticing the visitor to actually register the existence of the ad
and therefore increasing the Click-Through-Rate (CTR). However an important
thing to remember is that this is only true when animation is used in moderation.
I'm sure you've all seen those ads that say "YOU ARE THE WINNER!" where the
text shakes around. I'm also sure that you now hate these ads and never click
on them out of actual interest. If you do opt to use animation in your ads
make sure you keep it to a reasonable level so that it is not too intrusive
for the end user.
Use of a Logo
This was briefly mentioned in the above point but use of a logo can really
help distinguish your websites from the thousands of other websites there are
out there. As you saw from the banners that Text-Link-Ads have designed, they
have incorporated their logo into the image. This helps build public awareness
about the company and makes the banner much more memorable. Even if the visitor
does not click on the ad on their first visit, it will increase the chance that
they click on it on a subsequent visit.
Short Concise Message
Obviously your banner ad must have some sort of message. This message must be
concise and to the point - the visitor needs to be able to glance at the banner
for a split second and know what it's about. Realistically speaking you probably
have less than a second to try and gain the attention of the visitor with the
banner, which makes this message vital.
In short, keep the message concise and try and use words which are going to
attract your target audience.
A Final Word
As you can see there are many factors you should consider when designing a banner
ad. However with careful consideration of all these factors you can be confident
that you are making the most of your banner ad impressions.
| Introduction to Banner Ads | Where to Publish Banner Ads | |
