NFIB

Banner or Bummer? Part II
04/ 15/ 2002


Banner ads are an indispensable part of an overall marketing plan to promote your Web site, but if not designed and used properly, they can eat up your marketing budget. In last week's Workshop, Jeffrey Moses discussed practical points regarding the size and placement of banner ads relative to costs, as well as the effectiveness of the banner's message. In today's Workshop, he continues the discussion by showing how to maximize click through rates by minimizing the time it takes for your banner to download.

How many times have you gone to a site and waited, and waited, and waited, as a banner ad downloaded? The reason some banners download slowly is because they're so large. Slow download times turn viewers off to your message. To avoid a slow download, make sure that your banner ads are designed to be under 10K (kilobyte) in size. This helps ensure that even viewers with slower modems (14.4K and 28.8K) won't give up in frustration and move on.

An alternative to regular banner ads is animated banner ads. which can improve click-through rates because they're more noticeable and interesting than static, non-movable banners. An animated banner has at least two individual GIF images, sometimes called frames, that flash on and off to give an impression of movement, growth, or change. A high percentage of banner ads are now animated, and viewers are getting accustomed to seeing movement on screen. As a result, their eyes aren't automatically drawn to animated banners as they once were. Of course, animated banners take longer to download because their files are large, but as a rule of thumb you should keep animated banners at 25K or smaller so that viewers won't get irritated.

Animated ads work best (i.e., are most attractive and interesting) when they give a graphic illustration of your service or product. This isn't always easy to accomplish, so you should consider working with a professional Web designer or graphic artist when selecting the GIFs in your banner. It's also good to work with a web designer to make sure that your banner ads don't download too slowly.

If you want to design your own, however, there are some excellent tools available. Programs such as Photoshop, Ulead GIF Animator and Andover AdvancedTechnology VideoCraft GIF Animator will all do the trick. For some free, public-domain GIFs, visit the outstanding sitewww.mediabuilder.com.It offers a vast array of Web site-building tools.

There are other, more advanced types of banner ads as well:

1. Those that offer interactivity through pull-down menus. These have been demonstrated to improve click through rates, but demand greater programming skills to create.

2. Banner ads with sound and actual animation. Visitwww.macromedia.com to learn about several different ways to bring "rich media" to your banner ads. Macromedia offers software such as Shockwave and Flash, which can turn your ads into multi-media events. Programming skills are required, of course, so if you're not completely up to speed, you'll need to contact a web designer to help you. Also, some features of rich media aren't viewable by all browsers, while animated banner ads using GIFs are viewable by almost everyone.

One final point about banner ads should be mentioned. Even though click-through rates are relatively low for banner ads, they can serve another valuable function: placing the name of your company or product in the public's awareness. In marketing terminology, this is called "branding," or "creating a brand name." Creating a brand name is one of the most important goals of marketing. Brand names such as Kleenex, Coke, Mr. Coffee, and others are so well-known by the public that they are, in essence, used as the overall or universal name for a particular type of product. While you may not be large enough to claim universal brand awareness for your products, getting your name out to a targeted audience can help build your company's visibility. Then, sometime in the future, someone will say: "Oh, yes, I've heard about that company." Over time, building brand awareness will solidify your sales volume.

There are a number of books that can help you with the design and placement of banner ads. Some of the best include:

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Online Marketing, by Bill Eager and Cathy McCall,1999, about $17. (This book has a comprehensive section on banner ads. It's for the beginner, but can point you in the right direction.)

Make Your Web site Work for You: How to Convert Online Content Into Profits, by Jeff Cannon, 1999, about $18. (This book contains a great deal of information about branding.)

Dan Janal's Guide to Marketing on the Internet: Getting People to Visit, Buy and Become Customers for Life, about $28. (This book is nearly 400 pages, hence its price.)

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