Click throughs

In the United States, around 60 percent to 70 percent of online ads come in the form of banners. Just seeing the banner is counted as one "impression." Unfortunately, banners have low "click through" rates. The term refers to seeing your banner in another’s website and clicking it to shift to your site.

The click through rates are only one percent to two percent, which means that people tend to focus on the site that interested them in the first place.

Use banners for branding

Because of these low rates, the e-marketing group says that you should always put your brand in the banner. If you don’t put in your company name or logo, you’re wasting the 98 percent of your banners that don’t result in clicks.

"With branding you can get your name, your product name, continually in front of your prospects, even if they don’t ‘click’ on the banner," says 123emarketing.

Don’t assume that the viewer knows exactly what to do to get to your website. Put in the words "Click here."

It is vital to get the right size for the banner. The larger the banner, the longer it will take to download. The visitor may get to read through the entire website even before your ad banner gets loaded. As such, banners should not be greater than 10K. The best range would be 3K to 5K. Keep the load light so that the visitor will have more time to look at it.

‘Free’ is a magic word

The banner must be attractive. It may help to offer free goodies on your site; hence use the world free to hook the visitor. In fact the word free is the top attraction in the banner business. Present a free trial offer, a free subscription to your e-mail newsletter, a free set of jokes every week, a free art work, etc.

Join banner exchange groups--only quality ones--to get ad discounts. They will provide you with 50 percent to 80 percent credits if you host the banners of your partner sites. The sites may even offer banner space in multiple pages. The more exchange groups you join, the more exposure your site gets.

But won’t visitors to your site leave if they see the banner of your partner group? Won’t they just click on the banners of these groups? Actually this is highly unlikely, judging from the two percent click through rate. They won’t click the banner and leave your site. If they are really interested in your site, they will read on until they get all the information they want. If they are not interested, you will still benefit by putting your ad banners in other’s websites.

There’s a lot of leverage enjoyed for those who are part of multiple exchange groups. Suppose you have a 10-page website, each featuring the banner of a partner group. A visitor who views eight pages gets to see eight banners, and that’s a lot of credit. If the discount is 50 percent, you are allowed to post your banners in four partner websites.

Best color and themes

The name of the game is grabbing attention--you have only a few seconds to lure the visitor to your site. This needs attractive colors, graphics, text. Put a lot of thought into the sentences, five to 10 words each, that will spell ad success or failure.

What are the best colors?

"Bright colors almost always outperform the reds and the blacks which are less effective," says the consultancy group. "Use yellow, orange, blue and green."

Another tip is to use animated rather than static (single screen) banners. That is, the banner changes to reveal added text. For example, the first banner says, "Erap must go." It becomes a second, which follows it up with, "Save the economy." Then the third concludes with "Join protest actions."

A three-screen banner would be ideal, allowing you more room to deliver your ad message. It is important though to put your main message in the first screen.

"What’s in it for them?" asks E-marketing. "Build your headline, i.e.: the first screen, or your static banner, based upon your single most prominent, compelling benefit." Use five to seven words in your first screen.

The most attractive text tends to revolve around these themes: curiosity, humor, fear, and the big promise. For example: "Erap’s cronies tell all" (Curiosity) "Very new Erap jokes" (Humor) "Four more years of Erap" (Fear) "Peso to recover if Erap quits" (Big promise).

Do not restrict your net in banner ads. That is, do not try to funnel or qualify your visitors. Banner space is too precious for this, so leave the qualifying work to your website. Just use the banners to spread the word on your site, to invite visitors. Come one, come all