Boost Your Banner Click Through Rate
Here are some simple ways to boost your banner click through rate (CTR), and get people to actually click on your banners!
Don't Use Standard Affiliate Banners
If you are trying to promote an affiliate program and you are using the
provided banners, then you are not going to get very good results.
The problem is that these banners have been used 100's or 1000's of times before, and most people would have already seen them many times all over the internet.
You really need to make your own unique banner that will catch the visitors attention!
Get Colourful With Your Banners
The colours you use in the banner design can make a real difference as they trigger emotion:-
Red - Passion, enthusiasm and excitement.
Blue - Calming, cool and serene.
Yellow - Uplifting that will leave your viewers feeling lighter and happier.
Green - Earthy tone that will leave your viewers feeling regenerated.
Orange - Enthusiastic, flamboyant and excited.
Pink - Romance, love and friendship.
Purple - Royalty, dignity, energy, extravagance and high aspirations.
Grey - Intelligence, seriousness and professionalism.
Brown - Relaxing, confident, reassuring and earthy.
Black - Elegant, sophisticated, formal and strong.
White - Purity, cleanliness, newness, peace and simplicity.
Turquoise - Calming, emotional, protective and refreshing.
Limit the amount of colours to no more than 3 colours. This will reduce visual clutter.
Bright background colours, such as blue, yellow and green have been noted to have a higher CTR than those that are designed in black and white.
Make sure that any text is easily readable on bright backgrounds.
Example Banner:-
Limit The Use Of Graphics
Graphics and images used must be relevant to the product. The trick is to combine relevance with creative, attention attracting graphics and images.
Do you want to know what graphics actually increase CTR? Download the Banner Maximizer eBook.
Use Short Catchy Text Phrases
The text should arouse interest and entice a visitor to "want more". Use
a benefit statement that shows what it will do for the customer.
With a few words an impact on a target audience can be made and increase CTRs.
A phrase should be short, to the point and made to look visually
appealing. Colours and fonts used will play as important a role as does
the chosen phrase.
Examples of some effective phrases are:-
"How To ____ In ______"
eg. How To Lose 2st In 2 Months.
"How To ____...Even If____"
eg. How To Make Money ...Even If You Are A Newbie!
"The Top # Ways To ____"
eg. The Top 10 Ways To Lose Weight
Hint: If you are stumped on what text to add to your banner, try searching google for your niche's keyword, and take a look at the ads on the right hand side that are being advertised. These ads are proven to be effective as people are paying to have these displayed! This should give you some ideas on what to put in your banner text.
You can also use Tweak Your Biz Title Generator that allows you to generate great title suggestions.
Example Banner:-
Use Of
The Word "Free"
People are always attracted to freebies. Using the word "free" in your
banner ad campaign has the potential to increase your CTR.
The amount of clicks you will get largely depends on what's being offered. A free software demo, for instance, can bring a good response. Free money offers, however, arouse suspicion and are not a good idea.
Strong Call To
Action
"Click here" and "submit" graphic images, as well as using colour on the
banner will increase your banner's CTR. Studies have shown that a CTR
can be increased by as much as 20% when a "click here" call to action is
placed on a banner ad.
Many people surfing the web regard "blue underlined text" as links. A banner that has a white background can make use of blue underlined text as a call to action feature.
Other phrases that have been proved to be effective are:- "Learn More", "Free Trial" and "Click Here Now!".
Make
Multiple Banners
Using just the one banner for an advertising campaign, will severely
limit it's effectiveness. Rotating different versions of the same basic
banner is more likely to attract more attention and increase potential
CTRs.
Track Your Banner Statistics
It is vitally important to keep
track of your banner CTR, CPC (cost per
click) and CPM (cost per thousand) statistics as this will determine the
success level of your banner ad campaign.
You can then easily disregard the underperforming banners and ramp up your efforts with the ones that are getting you the best results.
Regular Design Change
Change is essential in banner advertising, as over time people become
blind to the same banners. Your banner ad design
must, therefore, be current and open to re-design and change often.
Studies have shown that CTRs can drop substantially after a period of weeks and only really improves when a new banner appears.
Testing You Banner Ad
Testing is an essential part that will demonstrate that your
design works and serves its purpose perfectly. Testing involves running
a banner ad over a period of time or number of impressions and measuring the results. Changes can
then be made and run again until it improves the effectiveness of the
banner.
Getting Banner Ideas
Want to know what banners are being used in your niche?
Download the Banner Maximizer eBook.
Recommended Resources
How To Create Banners That Get Clicks - A great blog post on the Leads Leap blog. This is also a recommended read.
Trck.me - Allows you to rotate unlimited banners and track where the hits come from and the CTR of any of your banners.
Buckets Of Banners - Allows you to easily test and measure the effectiveness of your banners. You can add up to 5 banners as a free member, and then simply surf for credits to quickly see which is giving the best results.
Free Banner Creators - A list of some of the best free online banner creators.
Banner Advertising Sites - A list of mainly free sites to add your banners, and more banner tracker/rotators.