Yes. Banner ads are still a craze among Internet marketers and irrespective of how many years we have travelled or rather evolved from the 1990’s, they still happen to rule the roost of the Internet ad world.

Some people argue on this saying that in a day like today most banners are subjected to “banner blindness” and that the users are conditioned to overlook and ignore this form of obvious advertising. However, I beg to differ. It is not the form of advertisement but rather the mode of execution is what renders it ineffective. A banner if made properly or in context to the topic, if dealt with a smart buy can actually bring in a 1000 sales.

Many companies tend to buy banner ads or banner ad spaces as this is a rather cost effective way to drive targeted traffic to their website, which helps in boosting leads and sales. As already mentioned before, in order to harness the best from your banners (to ensure optimum Return on Investment), they should be used strategically and smartly.

Like every other form of advertising, buying banner ads also comes with some guidelines that one must follow. Mentioned below are some tips that will come handy while buying yours.

Take a look:

•    Place your ads where your target audience frequents- This has more to do with common sense than strategy. Say you run a bakery and you want to advertise it online. Definitely you wouldn’t go and put in the words on a website that talks about video games would you? You’d like to advertise this on a food website or a lifestyle blog or anything of that sort because that’s where people search for food and that’s where your target audience is. Displaying your ads to a highly targeted audience cloud will definitely ensure you better, more and quality clicks.

•    The importance of location- Do not opt for something that’s cheap for eventually it may not be worth it. And chances are that to save 20$ you’ll lose out on all the 100$ that you’ve invested. It might be cheaper to buy an ad on the footer but avoid making such a decision as the most effective banners are those which are above the fold. If you buy an ad on the footer chances of it getting noticed is 1 to 50, while 50 is the number we are looking at for banners that are placed near the header or top side-scroll. Think of the larger picture and buy your banners.

•    Don’t be content. Test different designs and copy—Of course to find the most profitable method of banner ads, trial and error is the best teacher. Just like all other modes of advertisements, the only way you can find the most lucrative option is to test out multiple designs and copy. Buy an ad space and run a couple of banner in interval. Monitor which types of banners are getting the maximum clicks and go for it.

•    Pay for performance deals— This is actually a great option to opt for as it allows you to pay only for the performance of your advertisement. Instead of paying a huge amount upfront before buying the ad and running the campaign, you can pay small amounts for each click that happen to your banner. Also, you can maybe pay an amount for every 1000 clicks or for every 1000 impressions on the website your ad is displayed on.

•    Avoid flash, big files and forceful graphics—Yes, this is a factor to consider while buying banner ads. The most important that is. Do you know why in spite of buying lucrative banner spaces, most banners fail in delivering the value? It is solely because either they are too flashy, big or are too amateurish in looks that gives the users a feeling that this is just another banner floating on the medium. A simple banner that loads quickly can do the humongous task of pulling your visitors towards your website quite effortlessly. Make your banners eye catching but not on the eye.

Getting returns from buying banners is not rocket science. It is simply common sense merged with some guidelines. The above mentioned will help you there.

 

This article has been contributed by Aishwarya Vohra. She works for Offshore Ally, a virtual assistant company. If you need a dedicated VA for real estate service, visit the company website.