Banner Ads Don't Work, But Non-Banners Do!
Make your banner look like text on a page.
This is what I call a "non-banner" (close to "no-brainer"). If
your banner looks like a banner, it gets ignored. Conventional
banner ads only pull less than three percent on average.
Why is that? It's because we have learned to ignore advertising.
Every day we are bombarded with sales pitches in newspapers, on
the radio, on television, on highway billboards, and so on. It
becomes background noise that we learn to tune out.
Something that doesn't appear to be a sales pitch will receive
more attention. Intelligent surfers are looking for information.
They want to find out about something and be told how their
problem can be solved. Do that properly and you will get their
click. If you try to entertain them, impress them with graphics
or bore them with your company's features, you won't get noticed.
Your banner is pretty much a classified ad. And classified ads
work when the rules of marketing are followed. Make your banner
an attractive text ad and it will pull like crazy. Make it look
like any other flashy, hyped up banner and it just becomes more
of the clutter on a site.
If your banner will be staying at a permanent home, design it
so it looks like it is part of the site. Match the background
color, fonts and layout as much as you can. If your banner is
going through a banner exchange, use white as a default color.
At the very least your text will be highlighted if it lands on
a dark background.
Put useful information on your banner. Highlight key words and
phrases. Use a power headline consisting of your best benefit
right up front. Appeal to their "click impulse". Make them an
offer they can't refuse. Create a sense of urgency.
Put the words "Click Here" at the end of the text message,
underlined and in standard blue. This visual is the most
underused and yet the most effective way of getting a surfer
to click. Who cares about having fancy buttons, use what
works!
Don't use animated banners. Animated banners do pull better
than static banners but they still look like banners. Most
people smile and say "That's cute!" before clicking away
somewhere else. Normal text doesn't flash or move, so
neither should your non-banner.
By following these and other simple rules for banner design
you could very well, through testing, end up with a non-banner
that generates a much higher click-thru rate than a
conventional banner.
Currently many website owners are only too happy to host your
banner and collect your money for doing so since the banner
is only pulling a little of his traffic and is harmless to
him. However, he might become concerned after your new
non-banner starts to pull a bigger chunk of his traffic away
from his site! Of course, you won't care because you'll be
on your way to the bank...
About the Author
Ernie has put the rest of the design ideas and a sample
"non-banner" on his site at http://go.to/erniewest.com