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Designing the perfect and most clickable ad depends on planning your design, as much as designing it. There are some questions you need to ask yourself as you map out what you want to design and how you want it to look. Always know what the goal of your campaign is, such as increasing conversions or building brand awareness, and create your banner design around your end goal.
An important step is defining your target audience. Ask yourself who they are, what do they need and want, what problems are you trying to solve. You should already have a good idea of who your customers are but consider narrowing it down based on what you’re trying to sell. If you try to appeal to too broad of an audience or the general public then you risk missing the mark, people want to be spoken to for a particular reason or purpose and not feel like they’re seeing a generic advertisement online. Find out more on what a target audiences is.
Consider what type of information you want to include and what resources you’ll need to get the job done. You may need a banner in a few different sizes or languages
Make sure your text is instantly readable and easy to digest. The headline and body copy should be different sizes and no more than four lines in total. It’s a chance to clearly communicate your offer to your audience and encourage them to take action.
Consider what emotion you’re trying to ignite in your audience. Remember that different colours invoke different emotional responses. If you have a white ad, then best practice is to have a clearly defined frame around the edge.
While you don’t want to distract away from your message, animated web banner ads typically perform better than static ones. You may even want to dabble with using video or dynamic ads but make sure you keep it relevant to your brand and offering. The visual elements on your banner ads and one of the most important aspects of your design. You can either use a solid-colour background or a photo background for your ad.
You can design a banner ad by using the most effective and common banner sizes. Consider where it’s going and how much information you need to fit on it. The right size can help your banner stand out for all the right reasons. Some of the best performing banner ad sizes are:
Maintain hierarchy in your banner ad by achieving the right balance. Make sure you include your company logo, value proposition, and, most importantly, a call to action. Your call to action should clearly stand out and you may want to use phrases such as “learn more” or “get started.” The button should be placed on the lower right-hand side of your ad and be a contrasting colour.
There is a good reason why you should always have your banner ad linking to a dedicated landing page. If you ask someone to take an action then they want to be able to do it as soon as they click. Your landing page should match the offer in the ad and not make your audience take multiple steps to get to the end goal.
If you send them to the main site then they may feel confused about what to do next or where to click next. Dedicated landing pages work because they are a natural step on the conversion path.
Now isn’t a time to get too creative and completely take a different turn with your banner ad. Instead, you should be consistent with your brand to build awareness alongside other marketing channels.
Consider the colours you use, the tone of voice and copy, and your message. It should be the same voice you use across all your other channels and in your other marketing campaigns.
Keep in mind your ad will click to your offer or website – you want your ad to match the landing page so potential customers don’t become confused and click away.
Remember users are likely to quickly glance at your ad and decide within seconds if they’re going to click or not. You have to be able to get your message across without any distraction or confusion. Trying to do too much or having too much unnecessary text will overwhelm the viewer.
This will quickly tell you if your banner ads and design approach is working and improving over time. Use A/B testing to try different variations and see which is producing the most clicks, conversions, and sales. You can then use the most effective design as a foundation for future campaigns.
We hope you found our top tips to nailing the design process and creating a campaign that will stand out among the competition insightful. If you need help designing your ads because you’re not a professional designer or are busy running your business, then consider using a platform such as us!
Book a demo or sign up for an account and play with our Ad Builder and campaign functionality. You only pay when you want to send your campaigns live through the platform or when you download your tags to send your campaigns live through a different display network.