Target your Market:
By using a website’s ability to target, you can increase the effectiveness and efficiency of your advertising. You can deliver your message to specific targets, in specific geographical areas by user interest and even control frequency. Through targeting, you can be sure you’re reaching your target audience, and only your target audience.

Ask Questions:
Don’t just make statements and show pretty pictures. Use questions (“Looking for great golf accommodation in?”. “Have you seen?”). They initiate an interaction with the banner by acting as a teaser. They entice people to click on your banner. More importantly, they can raise click-through by as much as 16%.

Bright Colours:
Colours affect the eye differently. Using bright colours can help attract a user’s eye, contributing to higher response rates. Research shows that blue, green and yellow work best while white red and black are less effective.

Home is Not Always Sweet:
All web pages are not created equal when it comes to eliciting response. While the home page often performs very well, a site may have other pages which outperform it. Depending on the advertiser, certain pages can deliver a more targeted audience than others. By careful analyzing these pages, advertisers can increase their response by placing their banner on a page which better attracts the target audience.

Location, Location, Location:
According to research, banners which appear on the first page are more likely to be clicked on. Ad banners at the top of the page are good but banners at the top and bottom are the best possible choice.

Use Animation:
Animation can help catch a user’s eye. Strategic movement grabs attention more effectively that static banners. Using simple Java or .gif animation can increase response rates by up to 25%.

Use Cryptic Messages:
What did that ad say? What did it mean? Cryptic ad banners can help involve a user in a message. Because the “sponsor” of the message is not revealed, cryptic messages can be very intriguing. But there is a downside. Branding is forfeited on the ad. This may not be an issue if branding is not your main objective. Cryptic messages typically increase click-though by as much as 18%.

Call to Action:
As in traditional direct response, a call to action is known to raise response rates. Simple phrases such as “Click Here”, “Visit Now” and “Enter Here” tend to improve response rates by up to 15%. These phrases should be strategically placed in the ad, preferably on the right side. This is where the eye will be drawn.

Avoid Banner Burnout:
After how many impressions does click-through rate significantly decline? After how many impressions do people start ignoring your banner? Research concluded there is indeed a “sweet spot” for user response. After the fourth impression, average response rates typically dropped to under 1%. This is banner burnout. The point where a banner stops delivering a good Return on Investment. These findings are incredibly important. Controlling your frequency extends your reach and maximizes your ad dollar.

Measure beyond Click:
Click-though is not always the best measurement of campaign effectiveness. It depends on your objectives. If you’re simply trying to drive traffic, the click-through is great. If you are trying to gather leads, the best measurement is the number of people who clicked through and fill out a lead form. 3% click-through and 80% lead fulfillment is better than 10% click-through and 20% fulfillment. If you are trying to measure impact, conduct an online brand awareness study or measure user interaction with your site.