How To Create The Best Banner Ads For Your Campaigns.

So in our last article, we spoke about how banner ads can work well for your performance marketing. We gave you some tips on how this can be carried out. The problem you’re facing now is, that you have no idea how to DESIGN your banner ads for the best results. This is where we come in. In this article, we will look at actionable step-by-step design guidelines that you can implement in your banners today!

There are 7 parts to each successful banner ad design.

The size
The background
The headline
The sub-text
The product image
The CTA (call to action)
The landing page

The size:

Depending on your advertising needs, there are 4 commonly used banner sizes.

Once you’ve decided on the banner size for your ads, it’s time for the fun stuff! The DESIGN.

The background:

You can go 2 ways when deciding on a background for your banner ads. You can either go with a solid-colour background or a photo-background. But how do you know when you should use a solid colour background or a photo background for your banner ads?

If the product that you want to showcase has alot of information then it would be better to have a solid colour background. This way, you will not be distracting the viewer with too many other details in the background.

Alternatively, if you do not have a physical product to showcase in your banners, then it would be a good idea to go with a photo background. Be mindful that your message should be clearly in contrast with the background.

The key is to get your message across and to do it quickly without too many distractions. You want your product or message to stand out long enough for a viewer to see them at a glance before they scroll to the next section of the page.

The headline:

The trick to having a good headline is to say alot with very little words!

You dont want to cram too much information into your banners. This will make them look messy and disorganized. You want to be able to clearly communicate your message with only one or two sentences.

It is important to keep it short and sweet. Your viewers do not have time to stop what they’re doing to read your ad if you include too much information. You only have a fraction of a second to catch a potential customer’s eye. You can either lure your viewers in by creating witty and clever slogans, or you can simply be straight up and tell them immediately what your offer is.

When you construct your headline as an action, people will be more likely to perform that said action.

The subtext:

You may feel like you need to explain your message further, so here enters your sub text. However, if you want to use subtexts, ensure that thet are clearly visible and do not interfere with your CTA of the rest of your message. Also, as mentioned previously, try to keep your message short and sweet. Too much information would make your ad look messy and your viewers wont stop to read the whole banner.

The product image:

Should you use photos in your banners? Simply said, images sell. Especially if you’re selling a product and you want people to click on your ad to buy it right away.

The CTA:

Once you’ve settled on a background, heading and image for your banner, it is time to get some action out of all those people looking at your ads.

Your CTA is important because you are telling your viewers what to do next. Did you know that you can increase your results just by changing the colour of your CTA button ? These reports gathered some interesting insight into the human mind. We are conditioned to react differently to different colours.

Secondly, when creating your own ads, consider using an opposite-colour CTA. It is the easiest way to spot at a split second glance and it is even easier to figure out where to click. Now apart from the colours, lets talk about the text.

When deciding on the text for your CTA, ask yourself; “What do you want people to do?” Do you want them to Shop Now, or Learn More, or Sign up ? Your CTA will then direct your potential customer to the dedicated landing page.

The Landing Page:

When you ask someone to do something, they expect to be able to do it as soon as they click on your banner ad. It is important that your landing pages match the offer of your ad. Landing pages work because they are a natural step on the conversion path. If you are sending people to your main site, chances are, they will not know what to do when they get there, resulting in a higher bounce off rate.

Landing page design is a whole subject on its own – and luckily Neil Patel has written an excellent guide on the subject.

Now it is time to put it all together! Don’t forget to test your ads. For all your design efforts, the truth is, you don’t really know what works until you have tested it. Perhaps your customers respond better to a certain colour or one CT performs better than the other. We hope this article has given you some tips and inspiration for your future banner campaigns.