Five Ways to Get More from Banner Ads

A lot has been written about designing banner advertising to be effective. Common concerns are keeping messages concise and compelling, calling viewers to action, using animation to tell a story and generate interest, and tracking results of alternate versions of banners to identify the most effective ads.

Many companies, though, fail to optimize the actual delivery of their banner advertising. By looking at the information available in web requests, companies can deliver better results to advertisers, show visitors ads that are more relevant to them and maximize the value of their web site "space".

Five Ways to Get More from Banner Ads

Many sites fail to use banners effectively, using Flash with browsers that don't support Flash, showing ads that may be geographically limited to all visitors, or just displaying the same ad over and over, monotonously, and then wondering why it doesn't get many clickthroughs.

A lot of work typically goes into creating effective ads; companies need to think through how they deliver the ads in order to make the most of their investment. Here are five options for using ads and ad space more effectively.

Avoid Excessive Repetition

Eye-tracking studies have demonstrated the so-called "banner-blindness" effect. Visitors to sites quickly learn where the content is and where the ads are. If ads don't change over time, people learn to ignore space on sites where ads are displayed.

They ignore the space if your site delivers static, irrelevant information. This is annoying to users, and it's taking space on your site and throwing away its potential value.

Sites should optimize the use of their space by minimizing the repetitive display of ads to users. One option for minimizing repetition is to place absolute limits on the maximum number of times a user sees any individual ad. This is possible even with anonymous user visits, using a cookie. Another approach is to limit the frequency that any ad will be displayed to each visitor; once a banner has been shown once, it won't be shown for "x" days, hours or minutes.

By limiting the number of times any ad is displayed, you avoid boring users with ads that they've already seen, and you also avoid training users to ignore sections of your site.

Know Where Visitors are Coming From

You can also use referral information to improve user experience and the value of your ad space. You can display ads, or avoid displaying, them when users come from specific domains or pages.

For example, if your site is promoting an advertising partner's site, their main goal may be to introduce your site's visitors to their site. If someone comes to your site from the advertiser's site, though, it's a waste of your site space and users' attention to show them the advertiser's ad. They've just been to the site - they don't want to see an ad it!

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