And the Banner Man Held His Banner High
We hear it all the time: "Banners don't work anymore!"
But did 'banners' ever really work in the first place?
The latest published figures seem to suggest that the
average click-thru-rate (CTR) for a banner ad on the
Internet is between 0.15% and 0.3%. That is 1.5 to 3
per thousand.
Why is that such a surprise? Can you remember the last
time you clicked on a banner ad? I certainly can't.
Yet businesses are still putting banners up. Are they
just kidding themselves?
In the same way that big businesses will buy endless TV
spots or radio ads to get their name better known, so
too are banner ads used as a branding medium. These
campaigns, where response is only a secondary aim,
bring the average CTRs down considerably.
In the offline advertising world, Direct Response
advertising is thriving. Ads that solicit a measurable
action - call this number, fill this coupon, visit this
web site - are growing as a percentage of the total.
The reason is simple. Every measurable response lets
the advertiser learn more about the mix of media on his
schedule. Newspaper A pulls more calls than newspaper B
- then lets drop 'A' from the plan and try out 'C'.
This constant learning and refining should be practiced
online as well, but how many do it? The overall CTR is
further damaged by too many banners being bought on the
wrong sites, and staying there too long.
An advantage that offline media planners have is the
sheer volume of research into the audiences of every
advertising medium you can think of. So before a single
dollar is spent, they know that their ads will be seen
by the most appropriate people.
Not so online. Yet. In a large number of cases, banner
ads are bought and sold in bulk. For every perfect site
you buy, several others may be included in 'the
package'. This arbitrary approach will decline if sites
are forced to audit both the size and composition of
their audiences before advertisers will buy from them.
Making a successful banner campaign depends on four
factors:
1. Ensuring that the audience of the site you advertise
on is as closely matched as possible to your own. Not
just in terms of age and socio-demographics, but also
in attitude. Wastage is useless, and expensive.
2. Advertising on popular sites that people are likely
to have bookmarked. One of the reasons many people
resist clicking on banners is because they know they
will be taken away from the site they are viewing to
someplace they may not want to be. Highly bookmarked
sites are easy to find again.
3. Getting the right price. Until recently, most sites
selling banners insisted on a cost-per-thousand
impressions policy. The advertiser pays every time a
viewer has an opportunity to click the banner whether
or not that opportunity is taken. This is becoming
outdated, thankfully, as a more appropriate payment-by-
results model is growing in popularity.
4. Getting the creative right. This is not easy. Having
spent many years working in advertising agencies, I can
tell you that the few creative people really understand
the Internet. They end up creating online versions of
billboard advertising. Since the majority of billboard
ads are about branding and image, not direct response,
the difficulty is clear.
I recently ran a banner campaign for a web site which
showed up-to-the-minute financial data on budget day.
Banners were tactically placed on news and current
affairs sites, using clear, unambiguous copy. No
flashing lights or animations, just a simple, appealing
message. The click-thru rates were between 5% and 8%.
The server was overwhelmed.
Recently, I have seen reports that banners that are
designed specifically for the site they appear on - so
that they blend in and look like part of the site -
have achieved click-thru rates of over 10%.
In summary, here is my top ten pointers for making your
banners work well above the average:
Audience
--------
1. Aim at the right people
2. Be relevant. Make sure your main offer is 'in tune'
with what the site's viewers are thinking about.
Research
--------
3. Keep testing. Instantly drop any banner that isn't
pulling.
4. Know how much you can pay. If you are averaging $2
per click and one in fifty buy from you, then you had
better make more than $100 profit on each sale, or you
will go bust.
5. Before you spend any money on a site, talk to other
advertisers. If they say that their response stunk,
(and their ad seems reasonably okay), bear this in mind
when you negotiate price.
Design
------
6. Make your banner intriguing. If they don't care,
they won't click.
7. Tell them what's in it for them. If you show or
imply a really great benefit that they will gain from
your site, they are more likely to click to see more.
8. Consider disguising your banner. If you make it look
like part of the site, more people may have the
confidence to click it.
Price
-----
9. Don't buy cost-per-thousand impressions unless you
really have to - and the price is low enough.
10. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Never take the
first price offered. Always ask for (and expect) a
discount on the price, or a bonus on top of what you
are buying.
Achieving valuable CTR's can be done, but not by
blindly following the sheep. Successful advertisers do
things a little differently.
About the Author
Martin Avis publishes a free weekly newsletter:
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