Careful Use of Graphics Will MakeYour Advertising Banners Stand Out in the Free Ads and Paid Channels

The Internet has become an extremely important medium of advertisement if not perhaps the most important one. Traditional media are being squeezed hard as advertising revenue switches to the Internet’s banners and free ads.

The key to getting good results out of any advertising on the Internet is producing advertisements that are creative and attention grabbing. This process actually calls for far more skills than just using the right words. A good advertising banner is one in which you combine the right words, colors, graphics and animation. These components are critical to the popularity and conversion rate of the advertising campaign. As a person trying to eke the maximum advantage out of advertising banners you must keep the following points in mind.

Research is always good starting point. Set your campaign off by actively searching out the best examples that are already online. This applies to paid channels or free ads. To do this, you can visit popular websites and see which have good advertising banners that appear regularly. Do detailed research on how these banners are designed and what elements are evident in the design of these. Most importantly, try to tune in to the eye catching features and styles of these banners.

Whatever you intend to convey must be done in a manner that is clear and lucid. The key to this is to be clear in your graphics and your campaign message. Capture the interest of your intended audiences with clear message playing up the benefits of your product. Your banners must clearly convey to your customers, what you are selling, and the benefit that you are offering them. Place these components in such a manner that will immediately catch attention is the black art of banner advertising.

Limit the size of the file you use for your banners. This will drastically improve customer experience, as it will reduce the time it takes to display the image online. Make it a point to use limited colors and to use file formats that take less space such as the GIF format.

Keep words to a minimum. The main reasons behind this are that the space to display the banner will usually be small and using fewer but punchier words to communicate your message will increase its impact. Many of us are a bit challenged when it comes to giving a punchy advertising phrase. Look out for and make use of lists of what are considered to be the "power" words that immediately communicate a benefit. This list includes words like "secret," "revealed," "affordable," etc. Many copy writing courses make these lists available for little cost.

Images that you intend to use in the banner must be chosen carefully. It is a rite of passage for an advertising newbie to choose the right number and type of images. If you slip up on this aspect of your advertising design, it will destroy the effect you have set out to create.

If you are not confident to produce banners in software like Photoshop, then check out the free photographs and banner creating software that are available online. An important factor you can use to your advantage is to use contrast to capture attention. The message needs to stand out!

Make careful use of background colors and gradients, bold fonts and cropped sections from photographs. Advertising banners can also be an excellent vehicle for using your drawing and animation skills with a definite purpose in focus. Don’t fall into the trap of using these techniques just because you have the skills. Keep animation to a minimum. It is easy to overdo it with disastrous results for your campaign.

When you design an advertisement, whether for for free ads or paid channels, you should, ideally, use no more than two fonts. It is also important to stick fairly closely to fonts that are supported on the widest variety of web browsers, which limits you quite severely. Readability is crucial here as the viewer must instantly "get" your message.

Verdana is probably the most readable san serif font; with Georgia being the choice for serif font. Both of these are almost universally available on PCs around the world. If you have any worries about those two recommendations, then you are advised to fall back on Arial or Times New Roman, but these become increasingly difficult to interpret at smaller sizes.

A key principle of successful advertising banners is that less is more. Keep the banner uncluttered and use messages which will make a strong impact on the viewer. Don’t just take your own or your web designer’s word for it. Show the banners to other people before you commit them to a website and get honest feedback from them about their reactions.

Despite a lot of background chatter about banners being dead, they are still turning in a sizeable proportion of many business’ leads and they are not going to vanish any time soon. Learn to produce (or get a web design professional) visually exciting but subtle banners that keep eyeballs on your offer rather than irritating visiting prospects the instant they land on your website.

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