8 Effective Ways to Improve Conversion Ratio of Banner Ads

[Dale King]

In the early days of the World Wide Web, banner ads were the most popular and reliable revenue generators for marketers, webmasters and advertising companies alike. They were everywhere. However, in the wake of the dot-com crash and market saturation, prices paid for banner advertising click-thru's plummeted and banner advertising lost most of its appeal and effectiveness.

In fact, in a recent survey I read, the majority of people surveyed said that they don't even notice banner ads anymore. In other words, most people are completely blind to banner ads and rarely click on them.

Anyway, a few months ago, even though I knew most people didn't pay any attention to them anymore, I decided to test out banner ads to promote the various affiliate programs that I belonged to. Why? Because if someone tells me something doesn't work, I don't just take their word for it. I prefer to investigate, and find out the facts for myself. And boy did I find out! No one clicked on my banner ads.

Being the stubborn, determined and competive marketer that I am, this was unacceptable to me. I was determined to improve the click-thru ratio of my banner ads. Anyway, after months of trial and error, I developed a reliable formula for improving the convsersion ratio of banner ads. The formula is as follows:

1. Use short, hard-hitting, compelling sentences, and deliver your message quickly. For example: "Free Publicity For Your Website." Click here. Notice how that ad gets right to the point? Don't try to tell the whole story in your ad. Internet users are notorious scanners, and if your banner is too wordy you'll quickly lose them.

2. Use action words and phrases in your banner. Action words include words like accelerate, discover, explore, help, increae, illustrate, join and target. Action phrases include "read this" and "click here." Action words and phrases have a psychological effect on the reader. Also, offering something "FREE" in your message will attract readers to click on your banner.

3. Use bright colors in your banner ad. We’re conditioned to notice color. It’s one of the first things we notice about products and advertisements. Also, the way we view those colors psychologically triggers how we feel, think and react. Certain colors even influence us to buy.

Bright colors get people's attention. And the first thing you need to do when advertising is get people's attention. In my own tests, I discovered that bright colors like red and yellow are the most effective. Red commands attention, and creates a sense of urgency. Yellow speeds up the metabolism. It’s often used to highlight or draw attention to content. The combination of red, white and blue are also very effective. Blue inspires confidence, and white can have a calming, stabilizing influence on the viewer.

4. Use animated banners as opposed to static banners. When I tested static banners against animated banners, the difference was immediate and dramatic. The animated banners out-performed the static banners by as much as 1000%. Why? The animated banners caught people's eyes. The animation got their attention. My test results are consistent with the results of tests conducted by ZDNet in 1996. ZDNet reported animated banner ads had higher click-thru rates than static ads. In some instances, a 40% increase was found, suggesting animation increased user awareness.

5. Place your banners on websites visited by your target audience. For example, If you promote marketing services, place your banners on sites targeted at internet marketers and small business owners. Generally speaking, banners placed on targeted sites yield much higher click-thru's and return-on-investment (ROI). That's because you are reaching people who are most interested in what you have to offer. A lot of marketers prefer to place their banners in front of a general audience. And while this approach will reach a greater number of eyeballs, depending on what you're selling, it may also produce a much lower click-thru ratio.

6. Make sure that your banners load quickly. That means staying away from flash banners. Most internet users are extremely impatient, and if your banner takes too long to load, you'll quickly lose them.

7. Be patient. Give your ad a chance to work. Don't panic if after the first 2,000 impressions or so, you haven't made any sales. That's just the nature of banner advertising. In the subsequent 2,000 impressions, you could make several sales. That's why you have to be patient, and analyze where your numbers are after several thousand impressions.

8. Make it a point to check on your banners' performance at least once a week. Monitor the click-thru ratio. This is the number of times a banner appears on a page, compared to the number of times an individual clicks on it. The click-thru ratio tells you how well your banner is performing. On average, banners deliver a click-thru of between 0.5% to 2.0% - though your mileage may vary. A good conversion ratio is any ratio that produces a satisfactory profit for your product or service.

By carefully monitoring your banners' performance, you can quickly catch under- performing banners and make the necessary adjustments before you end up wasting your hard-earned advertising dollars.

So how long should you stay with the same banner ad? As long as it's working. That's why it's important to monitor your banners' performance regularly. Don't arbitrarily rotate banners, just for the sake of rotation. Only change things up if you notice a consistent decline in your banners' performance. Otherwise, continue to run it, until you reach a point of diminishing returns. I've seen instances where companies have run the same banner ad for years.

One last thing. The effectiveness of the aforementioned eight steps hinges on the overall effectiveness of the landing page on the other side of the banner. So make sure that you have that aspect of your marketing in order as well.

Dale King