At a Glance Web-based advertising is still going through its awkward adolescence phase of misdirection, clumsy, overly large animation, and its false sense of urgency. What can you do as you wait for technology and connection speeds to catch up to this sudden growth spurt? Scott lets you in on some useful tips to help you create effective banner ads that result in the ultimate click.

1. Target

When it comes to effective advertising, there is simply nothing more important than thoughtful planning. Before you start up those graphic and layout programs, you need to sit down and ask some key questions such as:

• What are we trying to accomplish with the ad?
• Are we after name branding?
• Do we need to produce qualified leads?
• How will we measure success for this ad campaign?
• Are we looking for high click through?
• Will we be happy with increased awareness or will we live and die by the number of leads generated?
• Who is most likely to be interested in our product or message?

You have no business designing an ad if you don't have answers to these questions. Let's have a show of hands. How many of you designers can relate with the following scenario?

1. Executive orders designs for an ad campaign.
2. Upon seeing proposed designs, Executive shoots them down because he considers the aforementioned questions only after seeing the fruits of your labor.

Thoughtful planning is the foundation of any advertising campaign. If you're trying to build name recognition, then you'll want to pepper your banners with your logo and name. If you're looking for click through, your logo might get in the way. A svelte ad might be just the thing to get the fitting folks to fill out those forms, but if you're trying to imprint your name in the public's mind you'll want to get down right funky.

Similarly, targeting the audience effects the direction of the campaign. If your target audience is the youthful set, advertising at many of the high volume big name corporate sites might be a waste of money. If your key consumer is the no-nonsense business type, you might want to avoid frills like, hefty graphics, animation, and humor. Knowing where you will be placing your ads is also important because some sites impose stipulations on banner ads, such as limitations on file size and physical size of ads.

Careful consideration to these issues translates into better results. The days of the novelty factor are gone; you can't just put up any old banner on any old site and expect to get any amount of response.

2. Design

The fact that Super Bowl advertisements create a dilemma for small bladder impaired viewers should not be missed by Web banner designers. Creativity can often be the difference between a 1% click through rate and a 20% click through rate. Creative design doesn't have to mean flashy graphics either. Effectual design can just as easily mean a two word pitch on a white background as it can mean winning the next animation contest.

One important aspect of design is the staying power of an ad. Even the best banner ads get old and a good ad campaign typically involves a series of fresh ideas. Not all ads need to be similar. Mix it up. A range of approaches increases your ability to apply your message to a variety of targeted environments.

3. Animation

Animation remains one of the best ways to augment the impact of an ad. Whether it's because we have an innate desire to satisfy our curiosity or we've been trained by television to respond to motion: Animation works. However, the Web standards for animation are increasing. Better tools, better technology, and faster connections are increasing expectations. Clumsy animation is a signal to a potential customer that your site isn't worth clicking to.

Animation also increases the file size of a banner ad. Beyond optimization (which is one of the points discussed below), one way to deal with this is by using creative looping. For instance, you might time the animated banner such that the first frame displays for a prolonged period of time, giving the other frames time to load. Conversely, looping animations are an annoyance to the viewer, causing a negative impression than a positive one. Therefore, use the banner loop only a few times before it stops on a key frame.

4. Colors

Color can be a designer's best asset. A multitude of studies indicate that people respond more to bright colors, such as blue, green, and yellow, or certain color combinations, like a rich yellow on dark blue. However, some audiences respond better to certain colors. For example, dark rich colors might appeal to the sophisticated set while bright and trendy colors can grab the attention of the hip crowd. While colors such as white, red, and black have recently fallen in disfavor, they might be utilized if they provide a level of contrast or distinction in the context of the ad.

5. The Pitch

Writing is an integral part of a campaign. Common strategies include posing questions (e.g., Have you been to Hawaii lately?), using cryptic messages (e.g., It's more fun than a barrel of monkeys!), and using directives (e.g., Click Here). Questions are effective because they initiate interaction with the potential customer. Some people need the little extra nudge that the classic "Click Here" provides. Avoid the false sense of urgency, the "Click here now or lose millions of dollars" type of message. It's tacky and most surfers are too sophisticated for the used car salesman mentality.

Font choice is also important. Banner ads are not the place for those tasty fonts. Viewers are bombarded with information and messages on the Web; you're lucky when they give your ad a second glance. Therefore, it's best to make sure they can understand your message the first time by using fonts like Futura, Swiss, and Helvetica.

6. Optimize

It's remarkable how many banner ads are run that are not optimized. The faster an ad appears, the more chance it will have to be seen and read. Particulary if the ad is on a page with a lot of content because it loads before the rest of the page.

You should also look for ways to optimize banners that are animated (which most are now anyway). GIF animations can be optimized in two ways: By reducing the number of colors in the ad and by employing interframe transparency. Animation programs that automate optimization include -- Gamani's GIF Movie Gear, Extensis' PhotoAnimator, Digital Frontier's HVS Animator Pro, Boxtop Software's GIFmation, and Ulead's GIF Animator. If you're using GIF Construction Set or GifBuilder, then your banner ad animations are probably overly large.

7. Technology

Due to their accessibility and ease of creation, GIF animations still dominate the banner ad scene. In general, new technologies need to get as close to this ideal as possible. Before you fall in love with the promise of interactive ads or more robust animation, you need to be sure that any alternative technology for banner ads remains reasonably accessible and fast.

These requirements largely rule out Java, DHTML, and Shockwave. One of the more promising emerging alternatives to the GIF animation is Macromedia Flash. Flash's ability to deliver more robust animations in real or near real time make it an appealing alternative. While Flash requires a plug-in, Macromedia has succeeded in making the Flash plug-in one of the most successfully distributed plug-ins on the Web. In 1997 Flash outpaced even Shockwave by almost 10 million with 23.6 million downloads. Macromedia reports 4.1 million downloads of the Flash player in January 1998 alone.

Flash offers several appealing things for Web-based advertising. For example, full screen animations with streaming audio, which emulate standard television ads, are even possible with Flash, compliments of Macromedia's new partnership with Real Networks in the form of Real Flash. However, smaller Flash-based ads are far more viable.

An increasingly popular alternative to the standard banner ad, employed at such sites as the Sci-Fi Channel and IBM, is to display a Flash-based ad in a separate small browser window. The ad plays once, like a television ad, and then the small window is closed using JavaScript.

8. Location

Location isn't everything, but it helps. Early Webmaster wisdom presumed that the best place for a banner ad was at the top of a Web page. However, many site owners are finding that the top isn't always the best place for an ad. Joel Comm, CEO of InfoMedia, Inc., is the creator of a family entertainment site called World Village, a site whose revenue is largely based on banner ads. "We need a new way to display ads on the Internet because people are getting used to just mentally skipping the top inch of a Web page. The result is less click through."

Notable alternatives for banner ad placement include positioning banner ads in a small separate browser window. Of course the downside to this approach is that viewers can easily close the window before having seen the ad. Another approach is to creatively place an ad within the content. For example, if the site contains a graphics interface or navigational unit, you can integrate the ads into its design. Also, Webmasters are finding that banner ads get more click through when banner ads are placed close to Web items that surfers are used to interacting with such as a Web scroll bar or link to download free software.

Also, note that while the standard 468 pixel wide by 60 pixel high banner ad still dominates, other sizes and shapes are increasing in popularity. Half-sized banners, 234 by 60, are becoming more popular because they are less intrusive. 100 pixel square banners are showing up in pre-sized browser window interfaces (such as in Disney's DisneyBlast).

9. Where Do I Point This Thing?

Web ads don't always need to point to your home page. While it is nice to see those main page statistics jump up, linking to your home page will require the viewer to navigate through a series of pages before they get to where you really want them to go. If you want to create leads, then point the banner directly to your forms. If you want to promote a new product, then point the ad to the product specs page or to a download page. If you're promoting content, then direct surfers directly to it. Surfers will appreciate the more direct approach and your main page statistics will increase as a by-product of your increased customer loyalty.

10. Test it

Good ideas are hard to come by. What may seem clever to you, might be incomprehensible to everyone else. Also, it's hard to predict to what kind of ad a given market segment might react. Create a series of ads -- some animated, some static, some flashy, some plain -- and generate a test group to see what kinds of ads get more response. One of the nice things about the Web is that it's easy to perform quick tests and make changes easily. All major television design firms test their ads, why should Web ads be any different?

Web-based advertising is still in its adolescence. When you consider the progress in sophistication that has occurred in broadcast television and direct mail models in the last 40 years, it's easier to gain perspective on the humble little banner ad. As the Web matures, advertising will mature along with it. As technology and connection speeds increase, so will the role of Web advertising. These steps are just the first steps toward that growth.