Banner Tips

Here are some tips to help you with your banner campaigns.

• Include text like "click here" to your banner, making it clear to the viewer what they are supposed to do. 
• Use interactive features if they are available. You've seen these kinds of banners all over the web lately. The FreeLotto banner that allows you to scrape the tickets is a prime example of a great interactive banner.
• You should change your banners fairly often.  After a few hundred thousand impressions (or less) a banner becomes stale and it's click-through rate will drop.
• Target your banners to the appropriate web sites. If you want webmasters to visit your site, then choose a banner exchange for webmasters.
• Use animation in a banner to capture the attention of your viewers and make your banner stand out from the rest of the page.
• Research about banners indicates that contents on banners does not work. So do not include contests on your banners.
• Keep the banner size less than 10k if you can, certainly no more than 15k.
• Of course, sex sells. However, do not make your banners pornographic unless your site is pornographic.
• If your banner is for an existing brand, then don't put the brand name on the banner as people already know about the brand and thus will not click on the banner. I found this out with banners for Amazon.Com - the click-through rate was terrible, presumably because people already knew about Amazon.
• And very, very important - track your banners constantly. You need to know what works and what doesn't, and you need to understand that this can change on a daily basis.
• Remember that banners must grab your visitors attention fast. They must get a person's attention in a few seconds. This is one reason why large banners are ineffective - people don't wait for them to load, much less look at them.

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