The creation of banner adverts is one of the oldest and most popular ways for a business to promote their products and services online. Notwithstanding this, display advertising has a proven track record of assisting with conversions and helping a brand increase their online identity.
One of my thoughts when writing this piece was to consider whether display advertising actually works. In my experience of both running my own marketing agency and now in my role of Marketing Director of Host Europe Group, I have experienced for a long time the effectiveness of such campaigns. Additionally, advertising spend are constantly increasing and average returns on both display search ads are healthy. Clearly, something does work.
I do accept that some may question this and I do accept that some display campaigns do not work. However, this is not due to a flaw in either the concept or the platforms used; rather that a greater understanding is needed to help drive stronger campaigns for businesses.
It isn’t simply about putting a banner on a website, leaving it and then expecting the revenues to come in. This approach simply won’t work. A greater sophistication is needed and to help you with this, I have created a 6 point checklist to help you make the most from your campaigns:
1. Strategy
Every marketing campaign needs to have a strategy behind it for it to be successful. Before starting a campaign, work out exactly what you want to get from the campaign, how you are going to measure the successes and how long it will run for. Mapping this out before you begin will allow you to keep a closer eye on the successes of your adverts.
2. Use engaging content
If you want your adverts to stand out in a highly competitive market place it is vital that you bring your advert to life. Include an image or a graphic that shows what you are offering. Remember; don’t clutter the advert with too much information.
3. Match the offer to your landing page
It sounds simple but I have seen many banner adverts where the landing page is completely different to the banner advert. Getting somebody to click through is the most challenging part; don’t lose them because they can’t find what they are looking for on the corresponding landing page.
4. Refresh your content
Make sure that you are always looking to refresh your content every two weeks so it stays vibrant and interesting.
5. Research
The strongest and most successful campaigns are the ones that are properly researched. You know your customers the best so creating content that will resonate with them personally is vitally important. Stand out, be bold and create a clear point of difference against your competition.
6. Test, test and test again
It is important to experiment with your adverts. Look to run adverts simultaneous with different imagery and copy and see what works best.
As well as this, affiliates should look to build relationships with their merchants and share information on how successful campaigns are going, as they will be more than happy to refresh banner content to help to drive stronger returns.