Banner Advertising Design Tips - The Great American Small Business Challenge | The Great American Small Business Challenge

This article was written by Ted Dhanik

Without good design, all of your messaging and sales pitches are as good as dead in the water. Good design can help enhance your messages, making your text stand out or creating an effective image that sets the mood for the customer. Images and colors can be extremely powerful tools, but you have to understand at least some of the basic principles behind design in order to use them effectively. With these tips, even the most inexperienced marketer can design strong banner advertising that converts visitors to customers.

Colors

Some color theory will come in handy when you’re designing a banner to display. It’s important to know contrasting colors, as well as complimentary ones. Black and Yellow are a good combination, but you can try others like blue and white or green and white a. The text should always contrast the background of the banner so it does not clash, and the user finds it easy to read. In general, a lighter colored background will require darker text, and vise versa.

Text to Image

For an ad to receive a click, it must be perceived as adding value to the user. It’s important to identify what your customer wants to see. Are you making the offer desirable? Does the text in your ad point to some exclusivity, or some other factor that motivates the user to follow through on your call to action? Are you relying on brands and other factors to reinforce trust with the user? Remember, you’re about to ask for extremely personal information or possibly even a credit card. It’s important that you establish your intentions up front in a method the user finds non-threatening. To do this, you need to employ some common tricks in copywriting. Use only the most important words to get your point across, and avoid cluttering the banner with a wordy sales pitch. Try to truncate what you’re saying, then let your landing page do the heavy lifting.

Sizes

If you don’t pay attention to acceptable sizes for a banner ad, there is a chance your user might not even see it in the first place. Most display advertising networks will tell you either over the phone or on the website which sizes they work with. You may have a selection between a few sizes, or you me be confined to one. Pay attention to those requirements so that your entire ad displays, otherwise you’re paying for impressions of an ad that no one can see.

Bio: Ted Dhanik is a sales and direct marketing professional. From his time with MySpace, Ted Dhanik learned both on and offline methods for launching a Web business. For direct marketing advice, seek out Ted Dhanik.