Can I share a secret with you? It absolutely drives me crazy to see a local business take the plunge into the online advertising world with a banner ad that won’t get results! What’s the point in advertising online if you are failing right from the start with a banner ad that fails to attract attention and deliver?
Without an effective banner ad design you’re throwing your money away. Sure, your banner ad may have come up into the rotation x amount of times… but are you getting any real result?
Here are 7 ways you can make your online advertising more effective:
- Less is more. Your text on your ad should be short and sweet, not long and wordy.
- Know your customers. Your main goal in online advertising is to get viewers to click on your ad and get to your website where you can sell them further on whatever products or services you have. Think like your customers – think about things in your field that your customers would be interested in or would like to learn more about – and then use that to your advantage.
- Ask questions, then answer them. “Are you tired of high heating bills?” might be something Joe Blow’s HVAC would use. The question gets the customer thinking about something they’re having a problem with (the high heating bills). Joe’s might then follow up the question with an answer: “Let us cut your bills in half!”
- Never underestimate the power of free. Give away something for free, and then advertise it. Maybe it’s a coupon for a free cup of coffee with the purchase of another one. Maybe it’s “buy 3 tires and get the 4th one free.” People like getting things for free, and putting your ad out there with that magical 4-letter word will certainly up your clicks.
- Just ask them already. Ads with the “Click Here!” phrase get clicked on significantly more than those without it. Crazy, huh?
- Link it right. There’s nothing worse than clicking a link to something, thinking that you’d be taken to the exact information you wanted, only to have to hunt and search the website for what you wanted. Make sure your ad links to the right place and save your customers from playing an online scavenger hunt.
- Change frequently. Using the same ad over and over and over again gets old, and customers will stop paying attention to you. You don’t have to come up with a whole new advertisement… you just need a refresh on the old one. Your promotion can be the same – just change some things around. A new color, a little re-arrangement, or maybe some fresh text can do a world of good!
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