We’ll figure out how animation and bright pictures compete for users’ attention on banners. And also how to measure the delayed effectiveness of banner advertising.
What is banner advertising
Types and formats of banners
Advantages and disadvantages
How to evaluate the effectiveness of banner advertising
How to create an effective banner
Expert advice
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What is banner advertising
Table of Contents
Banner advertising is a graphic image that is broadcast on the Internet on external and internal platforms. For example, in search engines and aggregators, on the websites of companies or partner projects. A banner is a brand message. Sometimes a banner is supplemented with a CTA – Call-To Action – a call to action: for example, go to the site, take a survey, etc. In narrow circles of marketers, banner advertising is simply called “bannerka”.
The main objectives of banner advertising:
● Conduct outreach advertising campaigns
They inform the maximum volume of the brand’s target audience (TA) and increase its recognition.
● Achieve conversion
For example, through calls to target action: click, go to the site, place an order, call, purchase, etc.
You can learn how to set up advertising campaigns in practice on the course “Internet Marketer”. Classes are held under the supervision of experts, from whom students regularly receive feedback. You can start studying for free, and there is also the option to pay for the course in installments for 7 or 12 months – depending on the duration of training.
Types and formats of banners
By type, banners are divided into:
● Static
a still image or graphic block
● Dynamic
an animated image, video, etc.
In addition to the classic rectangular banner, there are many banner formats for each placement site. Therefore, advertising banners can be divided into categories by the types of sites for which they are created:
● Social networks
● VK Advertising
● Yandex Direct
● myTarget
● Direct placement on partner sites, etc.
There may be several banner formats within one platform. For example, only Yandex Direct has the following formats: graphic banner, HTML5 banner, video banner, banner under the search bar, premium banner in search, mini banner in search, video banner in search, premium billboard. Each banner must be uploaded in double resolution.
Each format on the platform has its own technical requirements, including exact dimensions. Therefore, before uploading a banner, you need to look at the specific requirements of the service or platform.
Advantages and disadvantages
Let’s look at the main pros and cons of banner advertising.
Pros
✅ Possibility to reach a large audience without significant financial investments. Banners are the cheapest type of advertising in terms of the cost of advertising contact.
✅ Colorful format, the ability to use gamification elements and 3D-animated or flash banners (from English flash – flash), which quickly attract the attention of users.
✅ Direct impact on brand awareness.
✅ The opportunity to be more creative than in targeted or contextual advertising.
✅ You can buy exclusive placements and eliminate competition. For example, completely brand the media site.
Cons
❌ Banner blindness. Users quickly get used to even animated formats, flashing ads, etc.
❌ The intrusiveness of banner advertising of some formats leads to the fact that instead of a positive result, the company receives a negative one.
❌ The banner advertising market is overheated, which leads to high competition and an increase in the cost of this tool. The banner needs to be constantly running so that the user does not forget about the brand.
❌ Due to the delayed effect, it is impossible to conduct analytics and calculate the effectiveness of an advertising campaign at the moment in order to immediately adjust it during the promotion.
❌ Certain metrics and studies are only available under certain conditions and financial investments. For example, a mandatory condition for conducting surveys in Yandex Direct is a budget of at least ₽1,000,000 for the entire placement period.
How to evaluate the effectiveness of banner advertising
There are many metrics for evaluating the effectiveness of banner advertising, but their number may vary on different platforms. Here are the metrics that help evaluate the effectiveness of an advertising campaign:
● CPM (Cost per mille)
price per thousand impressions. This is the first metric to focus on when choosing a site for placing a banner on the Internet . At this stage, the manager understands how acceptable the placement is for the company in terms of price. For example, CPM can cost 200 ₽ or 1000 ₽. If the budget is limited, the cost of the impression can become a kind of entry threshold.
● Search Lift
research allows you to track how the frequency of search queries in a search engine grows after an ad is displayed.
● Brand Lift
allows you to evaluate how the number of users who remember the brand and its advertising, and are also ready to consider the company’s products or services for purchase, has changed.
● Visit Lift
shows how the number of site visitors is growing.
● Target Lift
shows how the number of target actions on the site grows or falls.
● Post-click and post-view conversions
allow you to track the number of conversion actions over a long period of time after the ad is shown: clicks, transitions to the site, calls to a specified phone number, etc. For example, on a banner with a tile ad, you can indicate a phone number and mark it with call tracking. This way, it will be clear that users who called this number came thanks to the banner. You can also count the number of calls.
Metrics from Search Lift to post-view analytics study the delayed effect of advertising. They are measured after the end of the advertising period, for example, after two months of promotion. Such post-studies help to understand how buyers behave, whether it was possible to influence brand recognition and demand for goods.
If advertising banners are placed not with the help of special services, but directly, for example, in friendly blogs or on websites, you will have to request analytics from the one who places the advertisement. You will not be able to track metrics yourself: after the advertising campaign, you can request brief analytics from the partner, but without details and analysis of metrics. Another way to measure the effectiveness of direct placement on websites is to put UTM tags on a specific offer or message within a specific site. Tags allow analytics systems to track where the user came from.
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How to create an effective banner
You can create an effective banner in five steps:
1. Audience analysis and segmentation
It is necessary to analyze the current audience of the product: who is present on the site and in the company’s field of vision and what actions they perform. Then segment the audience in accordance with the advertising product. That is, determine who, from a sales point of view, will be most interested in the offer, which groups of users the company wants to show the advertisement to, and select the most convertible segments. This can be done when setting up advertising in your personal account, for example, in Yandex Metrics.
2. Format and platform
Determine the format and platform for placing banners on the Internet , check the technical requirements and cost.
3. Concept and design
You need to think through the text content of the banner and prepare high-quality technical specifications for the designer: what the company wants to tell and what tools can be used to implement it. Will it be a static or animated banner, with gamification elements, with or without CTA, etc.
4. Testing
The effectiveness of an advertising campaign largely depends on banner testing: you need to conduct A/B tests , check creative options and see what brings the best results. It may turn out that a banner that seemed ideal will not interest users, while a standard option, on the contrary, will bring results.
5. Launching an advertising campaign
Based on the testing results, if necessary, you need to make adjustments to the advertising and then launch the campaign.
