Are you using banner ads in your marketing efforts? Considering using them but not sure they are worth spending the money? Banner ads are a staple in today’s digital marketing efforts and can be a worthy portion of your overall marketing plans, but before you take that leap, you need to understand your goals.

Where to Start:

When you are looking for ways to market your business online you need to think about these crucial things:

What sites are my prospects visiting?

What am I going to offer?

How am I going to create a CTA (Call to Action)?

Branding or Call To Action?

If you decide a banner ad on a blog or a website where your target audience visits, your next logical decision should be asking, “Am I trying to create brand recognition or am I going to provide a benefit?”

If you are a smaller company you want to go with the latter. Larger companies can get away with just doing their Pepsi or Apple logo without an offer as they are just trying to keep their brand top of mind and most of the audience already understands the product and their offer. However if you are a budding entrepreneur or new company then you need to start driving people to your site, events, studio and have them engage with you on a deeper level so they can start understanding your business and start becoming a fan of what you do.

I’ve built hundreds of marketing plans and I definitely think that a well rounded strategy as you grow is key. Eventually you will have enough brand recognition to do a mix of offers and traditional branding. As you start out though here are some myths that you must be aware of:

Myth 1

One ad is all I need. If I pay for one on an active blog it will drive a lot of traffic to my site.

There is no such magic bullet. No matter where the ad is. Repetition is key, A B testing is key. (A/B testing is where you test out different looks or offers to see which one engages your audience to take action. You then go with the offer which has the most results.)

Hopefully you have selected a high traffic site where your audience is but you still have to come up with the creative ie the look, feel, message. And of course what the offer is. What works best for your audience? Are they hands on learners? Then maybe a how to video? Are they needing help with organization? A checklist may be ideal. Put some thought into what they would like

Then see if the site will let you test out different spots on their site. Maybe a pop up on a video that is similar to your offer? Home page in line with the text. If you can put it on multiple pages then all the better! With the noise out there on every site and with social media it takes a lot more than one ad to get noticed. Now if you can do that in one ad, you are a rock star and you don’t need to read any further:) High five and take a coffee break!

Myth 2

If I have an Incredible Image people will click

Images do say a lot of words. Depending on your banner size you an image may distract from the offer. You can do beautiful things with just color and shadowing. As you can tell from this site I LOVE beautiful pictures but if I had to put an offer over them and a button to get people to click all of that in a small banner may be difficult. If your banner size is large then you may be able to balance it well.

Along with an image you must have some sort of offer, downloadable whitepaper, video, article etc. A give is always the best way to engage. If you stare by putting a logo and 25% off on a product you haven’t educated the audience on, you will get no where! You must educate the audience first on who you are and what you do.

Let’s say you are a photographer. You want to get more clients in for family holiday shots. Why do people want to do family photos? They want to capture a moment in time, they want to show off how beautiful their family is, they want to stand out from their peers. If you’re an artistic photographer that takes non traditional family photos you could do a pitch about ditching the traditional photo and have a photo that is a piece of art you will cherish forever. Show an image you’ve taken that captures your work at the top of it’s game.

Or you could have them download an article you have written about how to dress for a great shot. You don’t fancy yourself a writer than do a video! You don’t even have to be on camera you can just show images and do a voice over. But everyone wants tips for their best family photo.

Myth 3

Keep the banner ad up for longer means more traction!

If you have a banner ad on someone’s blog or website to help you drive traction I would suggest that you change the look and feel of it quarterly if not monthly, unless you are seeing constant action then no need to adjust.  But if you leave something the same for three months it’s like the laundry sitting in your laundry basket the longer it’s there the more you just walk around it and forget about it. So shake it up so people notice it’s something new and doesn’t just blend into the background. Try new offers to broaden current users or clients to click. Change the look and the feel so the eye doesn’t gloss over it.

Bonus one:

4. Any information on an ad will work

You should always have a clear call to action (CTA). What is the purpose of having a banner ad if there is no call to action. Your call to action should also have an expiration date to create a sense of urgency.

What action do you want to take? How can you appeal to their emotions to click on the add? What language/offer will get them to click? There is a science behind it. For most people it’s the thought of saving money, time or adding something they believe will increase their quality of life. Find your connection to your audience and figure out what they need and provide it to them. Use a button with “click here”, “Act Now”, “Only 2 days Left”, “Free Download”, “Give me the Good Stuff” 🙂

Here’s to a year of stunning ads that bring in clients and conversations to make this year a profitable one.