Banner advertising is making a comeback. We think this is because of the increased opportunity to deliver a stronger, branded message. But banner advertising can still deliver marginal performance, if the strategy for the ad is unclear or the creative execution is below par. Here are 7 steps to help you increase the performance of your online banner ads and improve your ROI.

1. Tailor Your Banner Ads

Banner advertising is no different than regular advertising. One ad doesn’t fit all. You need to design your banner to fit a particular website, or at least a group of related websites. By targeting your marketing effort in this way, you can expect to double your return.

Because of trust issues, banner ads that reflect the aesthetics of the website in which they are placed usually have the highest click-through rates. The web visitor sees the ad as a logical extension of the site he already trusts. But don’t generalize. You always need to test (see #2 below) different designs; maybe testing one that is a stark contrast to the site to determine if it outperforms.

2. Test Multiple Designs

Just as with landing pages, email, direct mail, and pay-per-click, you need to continually test design formats, messages, sizes, offers, and more. There are no rules in this business that cover all situations, all industries, all product categories, all audiences.

Start by creating several versions of your banner, some complex, some simple, some colorful, some quiet. Test each banner for a short period (a couple of days should do it) and see which ad produces the best click-through rate. Use that ad as your control and continue to test, changing one banner element at a time.  This takes time, but it helps you clearly isolate what is working and what is not.

3. Use an Agency or an Experienced Web Designer.

Don’t try this at home. In today’s marketplace, you’re competing for attention against some very clever, provocative, and effective banner ads. You need the design skills, marketing savvy, and direct response copy skills found at an agency, or in some cases in a talented web designer. Pricing varies. If you already have marketing resources that are up to the task, you can shorten the learning curve. On the other hand, new design resources might deliver new design ideas that produce unexpectedly good results.

4. Use Strategic Animation

Banners don’t need to be Flash masterpieces, but some animation can be helpful simply to get the ad noticed. In fact, research supports the fact that animated banners significantly outperform their static counterparts. The trick here is to integrate the animation into the story being told. Try to put yourself in the position of the viewer. A series of blinking ads in the right hand column are distractions. But if the message of the ad requires some movement, it becomes intriguing.

5. Make Offers Provocative

Banner ads, like billboards along the highway, need to use short impactful phrases. The old rule of no more than 7 words for a billboard should probably be modified to 5 words for a banner ad (depending on its size). Try to make the strongest offer possible. Then incorporate it into several different aciton headlines—again, strongly related to the concept of the ad — and determine which headline results in the highest click-through rate. Calls to action can still incorporate old standbys like “Free”, “Act Now”, and “Click Here”, and be effective in encouraging visitors to click through.

6. Reduce the File Size of Your Banner

Your banner’s file size is a key factor in how fast it loads. Multiple photographic images and larger dimensions can increase your file size beyond the point of practicality. Then your banner loses effectiveness, and even drags down speed at which the website loads. Many commercials sites limit file size to 15 kb, which is difficult to achieve, especially for animated banners, but it’s a good goal for any banner. (Remember that it wasn’t too long ago, when it was advisable for web pages to be 30 kb or less.) Not everyone is on a T1 line.

7. Evaluate Performance Often

Like all online advertising, banners results should be studied frequently, even daily. Response rates vary between .5% and 2.0%. If you’re lower than 0.5%, start over or switch to a different ad. If you’re above 2.0%, you have reason to celebrate; you’re beating the averages. In addition to testing, try the ad on multiple web sites, noting both the clickthrough rates and overall ROI. Here, you want to maximize the best combination of both.

Summary

Now that you know to make your web banners sizzle, apply the same techniques to other direct response Internet vehicles. The particulars may change a bit, but the desired results — getting prospective customers to click-through and take action — is the same.