If you had tried in banner advertising, you most probably know that this method is able to deliver great results. You need to know what you are doing and how to do it but all in all, if you address the right audience with the right message, your return on investment can be quite high and sometimes even higher than expected.
While many people consider themselves to be professionals in this area, advertising is in many ways, just like music. And, since many people know the notes but not all of them can put them together in order to compose a great song, the same thing applies to banner advertising. It’s not enough to know how to mix images with text in order to design a banner. It’s not enough to know the code to embed it on a page or the channels you can choose to deliver it. You need the know-how, some good amount of inspiration and of course, the right amounts of everything. This is where we come and save you, at least this is our main intention after analyzing a million of banner ads.
And with this article, we’re going to share our findings but first, let’s discuss the basics:
The Things We Know about Banner Advertising
They’re here to stay and we cannot ignore them whether we are in this business or not. They’re around since the dawn of the World Wide Web and they continue to deliver results despite of the wide implementation of ad blockers.
They started out as static banners and they evolved alongside with the Internet speed. As people began to experience increasingly faster Internet speeds, the advertising industry evolved alongside and started delivering better and better experiences. Also, it tried to adapt to its times and deliver banners of better and better quality and increasingly inspirational.
Static banners were at the beginning partially replaced by GIFs. Animated GIFs were not quite professional looking at first but nevertheless, they offered a way to deliver animated banners during those times, when the Internet speed was quite an issue. They were the animated pioneers and this is why, maybe, they didn’t succumb to new technologies, being as mainstream as ever, even in today’s context. Sure, when it came to professional advertising other better solutions came up such as Flash and more recently, HTML5. However, GIFs are still being used in the entertainment industry and on social media websites.
Flash looks awesome but it also comes with several issues regarding compatibility. HTML5 on the other hand, is universally compatible and it doesn’t require third party plugins or draining resources in only to work perfectly.
Moreover, you don’t even need to be a professional designer; you don’t need to know how to write code to create HTML5 banners. There are several tools that will enable you to do this without any other particular skills, and one of them is Bannersnack, the tool I am also using regularly. As a matter of fact, all the stats I am going to write about and mention during this article, are based upon statistical data gathered from the Bannersnack platform, after a few years of activity.
Here are the 5 most important findings about display advertising which are in fact collected from over 1 million banner ads:
1. Flash Banner Ads Are Living Their Final Days
For over a decade, Flash dominated the banner ad industry. For over a decade, Flash was the best choice for designers, marketers and advertisers because it allowed the creation of good quality, professionally and stylish looking banners. However good this option was, Flash came with a series of issues that in the end, proved to be its fatal flaws.
What do we know about this?
Well, over the last few years, 97% of the marketers chose to create and publish HTML5 animated banners, as opposed to only 3% who have chosen the Flash option.
Why do you think HTML5 won? Why did advertisers started to use it more than other options?
There are two main reasons.
First, we cannot ignore the fact that HTML5 is a format natively to all browsers. There are no issues in this area. You don’t need to install plugins or other third-party software programs. As a marketer, you would probably install the Flash plug-in and keep it updated at all times. You cannot ask the same thing from the average client and therefore, you cannot ignore the fact that you might miss a great percent of your potential customers only because they lack the proper plug-in or software. This is not the case with HTML5.
Secondly, Flash is known to consume a lot of valuable resources, especially on mobile devices. The major issue is that it drains the battery and on a mobile device, this is a major setback. There is no other type of multimedia content that drains the battery quicker than Flash.
2. Most Used Types of Banners
What size is the best for advertisement and display marketing? Well, according to stats, there are no less than three types of banners which can be considered as top popular amongst marketers.
- The medium rectangle banner: 300x250
- The large rectangle banner: 336x280
- The leaderboard banner: 728x90
Why do you need to know this?
Well, the information is important as you need to choose what types of banners to design for your future campaigns. And, considering that if you work with a designer, the prices will double if you demand a full set of banners, it’s good to know that you don’t need all of them. In fact, these above three sizes should suffice.
TIP: Use Bannersnack or other similar web tools and you won’t need to worry about sizes. Bannersnack for instance, allows you to create instantly a full set of banners and save them in HTML5 format.
3. Animated Banners Should Be Smooth and Minimalist
How do people regard animated banners? Statistics proved that HTML5 animations are more used than GIF animations, according to the latest research.
And let's not foget that people love them on one condition: they should be minimalist in design. Also, it will help you if they would run smoothly.
Why minimalist?
This is the main trend of today’s Internet. People love minimalistic designs and if you take a look at the last decade’s magazines and websites you will most certainly notice it. Spaced-out texts, overuse of white spaces, wide borders for images that are most of the times colorless. These are all specific traits of the minimal design.
What can we learn from this?
Don’t, and I repeat, do not overcrowd your designs. Keep your animated banners clean and stylish. Think about the reason people install ad blockers. Yes, they think ad banners are intrusive. A crowded banner adds to the intrusiveness and it tends to feel unfriendly to the viewer of today. You need the ad to convert and in order to do it; you will need to convey a message that will trigger some positive emotions inside the right community.
Here’s an example from Apple that will help you understand this advice:
4. Create High Quality Animated Banners
We already know that animated banners are a great choice, that HTML5 is the right format and we’ve learned a thing or two about the most popular sizes. What else?
Well, here’s another important thing you need to keep in mind before engaging in banner advertising:
In order to be successful as an advertiser, you need to be able to attract the audiences and convince people not only to read your banners but also to click on them and follow through your messages. The catch is to create professional high quality banners. Respect yourself and your brand before asking people to respect and follow it as well. This is a no-fail advice.
You have two choices in this matter:
- HTML5 banners. They look great, compared to other types of banners. There’s no quality loss if you switch from Flash to HTML5. However, the later format is also mobile compatible and responsive.
- MP4 video banners and advertising clips. The compression ratio is quite impressive for this type of video format. And, it can deliver full HD videos in just a few megs.
5. Banner Ads Do Convert and They Can Deliver a High ROI
Another important thing we’ve learned after we’ve analyzed all those banners is that they do convert. They generate revenue and this is the most important thing, considering that this is what we are all expecting when we plan an advertising campaign.
As a matter of fact, the industry is constantly growing and, according to Ironpaper, the total banner ad revenues will grow by a medium 7% yearly, from US $19,554 million in 2016 to $27,472 million in 2021.
Conclusion
If you have a budget for advertising, you should consider investing in banners ads in general and in animated banner ads in particular. They are still able to deliver high returns on investments despite the wide proliferation of ad blockers and they are most certainly one of the most effective ways to promote a business or a product.
However, in order to be successful, you need to always study the market, the competition and of course, the trends of the industry. With this article, we have tried to provide you with five of the most important trends of the advertising industry, and the more specific banner advertising part of it. Read them carefully and try to adapt your strategy according to the facts of the present market.
What do you think about these key points? Do you know other important trends regarding animated banners?
Visual marketer and content marketing manager at Bannersnack, a professional banner creation app for designers & marketers. Passionate about visual marketing, Instagram, content marketing, and always up-to-date with the latest trends.
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