Use the following best practices to create digital campaign assets to successfully promote your product or service.
Display advertising can be great for direct response campaigns designed to drive website traffic or a specific action on your site, like an email signup or coupon download. And, display can also help increase campaign efficiency when used in conjunction with a tactic such as video or paid social media.
There are a number of steps to planning and purchasing the display campaign before you create the banner ads.
PREFACE: IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE
First, you need to identify your target audience, including demographics, behavior and geography. Once you have defined your audience, you need to determine which landing page you will send the campaign traffic as well as your KPI or Key Performance Indicator. This can be a click, coupon download, purchases, etc. Establishing your goals upfront will help your partners optimize the campaign to deliver the best possible results. But, after you have spent so much time on campaign planning, don’t short-change your media buy with poorly designed banner ads.
Consider the following tips to help get the most out of your digital display campaign.
1. CLEAR CALL TO ACTION
First and foremost, you need a clear call to action. Remember, your banner ad will be competing with various other items on the webpage, so you only have a few seconds to grab their attention. You need to prominently display your CTA button and include a strong reason to click. Clearly communicate the benefit of your offer or information. Using non-committal verbiage like “Learn More” or “Request a Free Quote” instead of “Register Now” or “Buy Now” can also help improve conversion rates.
For example, compare the ads below. The offer and the imagery are similar, but the slight change from “See AARP Visa Rewards” to “Learn More” helped to improve the campaign’s conversion rate.
2. BE CLEAR AND CONCISE
Similar to your call-to-action, your message/offer must be clear and more importantly – concise. A potential customer doesn’t have time to read a lot of copy to understand what you are offering. Focus on developing a strong headline that immediately communicates your offer and intrigues a reader enough to click to learn more.
As an example, compare the following ads. Sephora clearly states the offer and quickly communicates how it can be redeemed, compared to the ad for a local mortgage broker that doesn’t provide an offer or call-to-action at all. You don’t need to put all of your information in your banner ad – you just need to motive a potential customer to click through to your landing page.
3. BRAND CONSISTENCY
Make sure your display banner ads also have the same look and feel as your other campaign assets as well as your landing page. This will help maintain brand consistency and improve the user experience.
And, don’t forget to prominently display your company logo. Your logo adds validity and trust to your banner ads, which a user needs before clicking through to your website.
4. TEST, TEST, TEST
Don’t just “set it and forget it” when it comes to digital campaigns. Campaign optimizations will not only help you identify your target audience but also refine your creative message. You have the opportunity to test various offers, color schemes, images, etc. and determine the highest performing executions.
I know it’s tempting, but when it comes to developing banner ads for your product or service, don’t simply resize your latest print ad or outdoor board. Therefore, we ask you to think through the digital experience. Make it as clear and easy as possible for your potential customers to engage with your information. Taking this extra step will help improve the campaign performance and, more importantly, your ROI.