How To Select The Right Size Banner Ads
If you have a website or plan to have one, you must surely have given a though to banner ads. Banner ads are amongst the most cost effective and easy to use methods for generating money or simply said, monetizing your website.
But the idea of generating money through your website is not so simple. Although banner ads are a great way to earn money, today many websites suffer from banner blindness. Banner blindness is the phenomenon when users simply ignore the banner ads placed in the website. This irrelevance of banner ads in the eyes of the user leads to low click-though rates which in-turn leads to less money generated through clicks.
With the initial days of banner ads gone, the excitement of clicking on a cool looking banner ad is also diminishing day by day. Today, even a casual web surfer knows what banner ads are and why they are used and this makes it more difficult for a banner to lure them into clicking it. With time, users have learnt how to ignore a banner advertisement. websites suffer from banner blindness because of various reasons, poor placement, wrong size and non uniformity with the overall theme of the website are some of the main reasons responsible for a the ignorance of banner ads in a website.
Size is one of the biggest parameters in asserting the goodness of a banner. Some general guidelines while selecting the size of the banner ad:
* The Larger The Better: Research on the sizes and the click-through rates generated by various banners have shown that bigger, larger banners create more interest in visitors and command a high click rate then other smaller banner ads. Among banners, 728×90 and 300×250 command a higher chick-through rate over other banners. Placed generally on the header, between text, sidebar or the footer, the bigger size of these banners and their elite placement positions give these banners a larger canvas which makes it possible for them to grab more attention of visitors thereby, converting even casual visits to clicks.
* Say No to 468×60: Across the board, 468×60 is the banner size that has shown lowest click-through rates. Being the oldest banner format, users have learnt to ignore these banners and thus, its low click-through rates. These banner ads, being small, are not suitable for today’s high resolution websites. These small banners because of their size are generally surrounded by the content and thus, not given a major positioning in the web designs.
* Say Yes to Animation in Right Size: Though many analysts tend to presume that animated banners may appear childish if you are promoting a serious product; the fact remains that animated ads are quite successful in receiving a large number of clicks. That apart one needs to choose the right size of animated banner adds. Often sleek animated banners in large rectangular shapes are know to instantly grab attention of users.
Banner ads are considered to be among the most efficient tools for online marketing and will command their price for years to come. Generating money from banner ads is not an easy job but is possible in every way, if certain guidelines of effective placement, positioning and size selection are followed.