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Marketing 11 min read September 24, 2020

How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner

How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner
Josh Bruce
Andriy Chornyy
CEO at Plerdy
Banners serve as one of the longest-standing online advertising methods. They provide the maximum reach and high CTR if there are no design troubles, and even ad blockers can not affect this.
One of the main pros of this ad type is the high efficiency/cost ratio. All businesses, even billion-revenue top companies, use banners. This article deals with creating an efficient advertising banner.
What a banner should be: main design trends
The banner design is mainly determined by user interaction. Usually, visitors do not focus on this element, they only give a glance to it. The banner efficiency directly depends on its ability to draw the user's attention within a few seconds. If yes, most likely, the user will click on it. This is the first step in the sales funnel.
Arising from this, there are three main requirements for banner design:
1
They should not look like simple pictures. A banner should be clickable.
2
A clear message is required so that the visitor would understand your concept — no small font or abundance of small elements. Users visit your website to find the required information. They don't look for your banner, so they would not try to grasp its meaning.
3
The design should be "catchy".
The banner design has the following trends:

Interactive elements. If a banner responds to user behavior, this draws attention. E.g., IKEA has taken a step further and made a joke about itself by making a banner in the form of a manual for creating a banner.
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432869

Maximum informative value and storytelling (series of banners).

Retro-style. Without reference to a certain period.

Combination of different fonts, use of handwriting-styled text.

Picture style.

Flat design — use of simple elements and contrast colors
Also, track popular memes as they can be used in banner design and can be traded on. Attention and high CTR are guaranteed.
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432870
Boldness and overt provocation also can give good results. But don't overdo it like in the case with the motto "Smoking is to be a slave to tobacco" (anti-tobacco campaign) when millions of French were shocked with the comparison of sexual slavery.
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Examples of Google Ads banners
A proper size allows using the purchased advertising space to maximum effect. Also, it influences the perception of the content by the visitors. Ideally, a banner should be noticeable, but not annoying.

As this advertising element has been used for a long time, there are some standard banner sizes. Mainly one of the standard typical sizes is used.
Medium rectangle (728х90)
Also known as leaderboard because it is usually located on the top of the page. This makes it noticeable for sure.
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432870
This element is not used in the middle of the text because this distracts from reading the text so most likely the user will skip it.
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432870
Less frequently leaderboards are located at the end of the page. This depends on the scroll depth - if it is 50-60%, most users won't see it.
Inline rectangle (300х250)
A medium-sized rectangle is one of the most popular banner types. It is often integrated into the text, it is not annoying and looks organically.
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432870
This element can be located in any part of the page. Usually, this type of banners is used at the top of the page as the visitor's response to it is more likely.
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432870
On mobile devices these banners are also used for organic text separation.
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432871
Also banners of different types are combined. E.g., leaderboards do not hinder the perception of an inline rectangle so this does not worsen the usability. The picture above serves as an example of using of two types of banners on one page.
Mid-page ad (300х600)
A rather bulky banner. Due to its size, it is not integrated into the text. Usually, it is located in the right/left from the text.
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432871
Don't forget to use good photos or animation so that the banner field would not look empty. Don't forget about call-to-action as the offer should be clear for the website visitor.

Above you can see an example of pretty good design. The upper banner part includes the product image, the animation shows the offer and the lower part is the call to action. Surely, the banner will not be confused with a mere picture and its clickability can be also seen.

This banner is not suitable for smartphones.
Wide skyscraper (160х600)
It is similar to the previous banner type, but the skyscraper is twice as narrow. The use principle is the same as for the mid-page ad - the skyscraper is located in the upper side part of the website.
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432871
The wide skyscraper is not suitable for smartphones as it can not be integrated into the text without affecting the usability. It should not be also located aside the text considering the screen area.
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432871
The wide skyscraper is used when there is free space aside, but no room for the mid-page ad.
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Pop-ups as a cure from banner blindness
One of the drawbacks of standard banner view is that page visitors instinctively filter them as definitely useless. This phenomenon is called "banner blindness".
Use of pop-ups guarantees that the visitor will pay attention to the advertising banner. They are used: for showing very important information (e.g., current discounts and promo campaigns):
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432871
or for collecting visitors' contacts:
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432872
The advantage of the pop-ups is that the advertising banner is not shown on the website all the time. Sometimes the user can not interact with the website until s/he responds to the pop-up. This is both an advantage and a drawback.

There is a middle ground - an unobtrusive notification about a discount or promo campaign.

You can set up its impression depending on the:

  • device used for visiting the website (mobile or PC);
  • time (e.g., show at the end of the month only;
  • page scroll (e.g., the pop-up appears after scrolling 50% of the page);
  • visitor's action (e.g., when opening a page of the certain category on an online store website).

There is no need to involve a programmer for using pop-ups. Plerdy offers a designer for adding the intelligent forms to the website yourself.
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Examples of using pop-ups and ordinary banners
Below you can find some examples of successful use of these elements for collecting contacts and notifying about important events:

When visiting Aliexpress home page you see a banner with a last-minute offer:
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432872
On eBay we can see a similar approach - in the sections with game consoles we see a recommendation to make fast payments with a card:
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432872
On Joom when you open any category page you see a pop-up offering a 10% discount:
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432872
Banggod.com collects contact information. When opening the homepage a pop-pop with offering 20 discount coupons. For getting them you need to sign in leaving your e-mail:
How To Create An Efficient Advertising Banner 16261788432872
These elements are used on other top web-resources. They are efficient, but they should be thoroughly designed and should not affect the website usability.
9 Lead Magnet Ideas For Every Stage Of The Buyer's Journey
Conclusion
Banners are advertising elements used since 1994. They still provide a good inflow of new customers. In 2014 Google Media Lab performed a banner advertising efficiency test. 82% of the respondents used banners. This method is also used in Google, Corporation; thus, in the second half of 2014, the frequency of Android Wear brand references on the Internet was increased by 15.8% due to creative banners.

Successful companies use these elements in advertising in two ways:
1
Banners as advertising on third-party websites. This is cheap, provides a maximum reach if the design is rather creative, attracts new customers;
2
Displaying the required information on the website using pop-ups. For sure, the visitor will not skip them.
Banner ads are suitable both for owners of successful businesses and for beginners who have not attracted a large audience yet. But they should be creative and catch the customer's mood.
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