People always want to know how we create banners that consistently get good click through

Ratios - or more accurately why the banner that they created, isn't bringing in the hits - so we

Decided to create this primer

The most important thing:

You have to grab the viewer's attention and grab it fast, in less than 20 seconds by most

Accounts the viewer has to notice the banner. How many times have you clicked on a banner?

How many times have you surfed and been oblivious to banners. Why did you click on the

Banners that you have clicked on

To get the banner to load in the aforementioned 20 seconds you'll need to optimize the banner.

Optimizing your banner means creating a banner that is small (not physical size but small

Kilobyte size) so that it downloads quickly to due this you have to alter a Gif's (Graphics

Interchange Format) color depth and color palette using dithering. A Gif file includes all the

Colors that make up the image, so using fewer colors means a smaller Gif. If you are interested

In making sure your banner looks the same to everyone you will want to check out the 216

"Browser-safe palette" that look the same on both PC and Mac operating systems

We recommend Macromedia's Fireworks for banner creation as it is a capable image editing

Program with excellent optimization functions

Animation:

Animated banners get noticed more often than static banners and stand better chances of

Getting clicked an animated GIF is a GIF89a file that contains multiple images that are

Displayed in a specified order within a single file by adding frames your are adding to the file

Size - try only animating sections of your banner and keeping other regions static to help keep

The file size down Pay careful attention to the speed of your animated Gif, if it's too fast your

Viewer won't be able to get the message, too slow and this viewer may loose interest before

You present the whole message.

Textural Component:

The Job of the text or copy on a banner is to make the best possible statement about the

Company or product that the banner is advertising while you can use the visual element to

Grab attention and in some cases induce a click through, but more often than not the text on the

Banner is what make or break a click through. The main thing to keep in mind is to use the text

To convey a clear communication to the viewer about the advantages of clicking on your

Banner

To color on not to color:

The color choices that you make for your ad graphic is very important as it can work for you or

Against you you'll have to limit your palette to keep the file size low and stay away from dark

Text on a dark background

Colors mean different things to people in different regions in the world. While you might like

Purple, to parts of Europe it signifies death - Pink in India has negative connotations. While you

Can over think this blue and green are very safe bets.

Try to use bright colors they seem to catch the eye better, and result in better Car's.

Don't keep beating a dead banner:

Most sites have at least some repeat visitors and the more times a viewer sea's a particular

Banner the less likely they are to click on it. One way to combat this is to generate three or four

Different banners and rotate them at the same time so that you have more that one shot at each

Surfer additionally you should consider changing your creative every so often.

The Bottom Line:

The bottom line is that making effective ad graphics can be very involved process. If you don't

Have hours to invest we suggest you hire a professional. If you want to learn to create banners

Experiment, keep good performance stats, and enjoy the creative process.