We hear it all the time: "Banners don't work anymore!" But did
'banners' ever really work in the first place?
The latest published figures seem to suggest that the average
click-thru-rate (CTR) for a banner ad on the Internet is
between 0.15% and 0.3%. That is 1.5 to 3 per thousand.
Why is that such a surprise? Can you remember the last time
you clicked on a banner ad? I certainly can't.
Yet businesses are still putting banners up. Are they just
kidding themselves?
In the same way that big businesses will buy endless TV spots
or radio ads to get their name better known, so too are banner
ads used as a branding medium. These campaigns, where response
is only a secondary aim, bring the average CTRs down
considerably.
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In the offline advertising world, Direct Response advertising
is thriving. Ads that solicit a measurable action - call this
number, fill this coupon, visit this web site - are growing as
a percentage of the total. The reason is simple. Every
measurable response lets the advertiser learn more about the
mix of media on his schedule. Newspaper A pulls more calls
than newspaper B - then lets drop 'A' from the plan and try
out 'C'.
This constant learning and refining should be practiced online
as well, but how many do it? The overall CTR is further damaged
by too many banners being bought on the wrong sites, and staying
there too long.
An advantage that offline media planners have is the sheer
volume of research into the audiences of every advertising
medium you can think of. So before a single dollar is spent,
they know that their ads will be seen by the most appropriate
people.
Not so online. Yet. In a large number of cases, banner ads are
bought and sold in bulk. For every perfect site you buy,
several others may be included in 'the package'. This
arbitrary approach will decline if sites are forced to audit
both the size and composition of their audiences before
advertisers will buy from them.
Making a successful banner campaign depends on four factors:
1. Ensuring that the audience of the site you advertise on is
as closely matched as possible to your own. Not just in terms
of age and socio-demographics, but also in attitude. Wastage
is useless, and expensive.
2. Advertising on popular sites that people are likely to have
bookmarked. One of the reasons many people resist clicking on
banners is because they know they will be taken away from the
site they are viewing to someplace they may not want to be.
Highly bookmarked sites are easy to find again.
3. Getting the right price. Until recently, most sites selling
banners insisted on a cost-per-thousand impressions policy.
The advertiser pays every time a viewer has an opportunity to
click the banner whether or not that opportunity is taken.
This is becoming outdated, thankfully, as a more appropriate
payment-by-results model is growing in popularity.
4. Getting the creative right. This is not easy. Having spent
many years working in advertising agencies, I can tell you
that few creative people really understand the Internet. They
end up creating online versions of billboard advertising. Since
the majority of billboard ads are about branding and image, not
direct response, the difficulty is clear.
I recently ran a banner campaign for a web site which showed
up-to-the-minute financial data on budget day. Banners were
tactically placed on news and current affairs sites, using
clear, unambiguous copy. No flashing lights or animations,
just a simple, appealing message. The click-thru rates were
between 5% and 8%. The server was overwhelmed.
Recently, I have seen reports that banners that are designed
specifically for the site they appear on - so that they blend
in and look like part of the site - have achieved click-thru
rates of over 10%.
In summary, here is my top ten pointers for making your
banners work well above the average:
Audience --------
1. Aim at the right people
2. Be relevant. Make sure your main offer is 'in tune' with
what the site's viewers are thinking about.
Research --------
3. Keep testing. Instantly drop any banner that isn't pulling.
4. Know how much you can pay. If you are averaging $2 per
click and one in fifty buy from you, then you had better make
more than $100 profit on each sale, or you will go bust.
5. Before you spend any money on a site, talk to other
advertisers. If they say that their response stunk, (and their
ad seems reasonably okay), bear this in mind when you
negotiate price.
Design ------
6. Make your banner intriguing. If they don't care, they won't
click.
7. Tell them what's in it for them. If you show or imply a
really great benefit that they will gain from your site, they
are more likely to click to see more.
8. Consider disguising your banner. If you make it look like
part of the site, more people may have the confidence to click
it.
Price -----
9. Don't buy cost-per-thousand impressions unless you really
have to - and the price is low enough.
10. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate. Never take the first
price offered. Always ask for (and expect) a discount on the
price, or a bonus on top of what you are buying.
Achieving valuable CTR's can be done, but not by blindly
following the sheep. Successful advertisers do things a little
differently.
