In my opinion, the three things that make up a solid effective banner ad campaign are:
 
1. Proper targeting
2. Consistency between banner ad creative and landing page
3. Branding
 
Let’s take a closer look at these three points. We’re going to focus on the company Wolverine, a leader in work boots and work shoes. I recently came across this site after seeing a Wolverine banner ad on ESPN.com. See the banner add below.
 

 

1. Proper Targeting

The first step to an effective banner ad campaign is making sure your banner ad is targeted properly. As you can see in the example below, the Wolverine banner ad was spotted on ESPN.com within the NBA section. Without knowing the demographic stats on this particular section of ESPN.com, you can assume that the majority of people reading an NBA article are Male, between the ages of 15 to 65, possibly older.
 
 

So Wolverine decides to run their ad campaign on ESPN.com where they are highly likely to reach a male audience, hence increasing the chances of finding potential customers that might be interested in quality work boots. Great job there!
 

2. Consistency between banner ad creative and landing page

 
The second step to an effective banner ad campaign is making sure your banner ad creative and the landing page creative are consistently tied together with consistent graphics and message. Wolverine does a great job at this by having a well designed banner ad creative that links to a matching landing page that carries over with identical matching graphics and messaging.
 

 
Don’t throw your money away!
 
The fastest way to not get a high return on your investment when running a banner ad campaign is to have a well designed banner ad creative that links to a landing page that is inconsistent with the banner ad from a graphical and messaging standpoint. When someone clicks your banner ad, you have literally a few seconds to draw that user in and to get that user to interact with your page and take action. So make sure your banner ad creative and landing page ties together seamlessly. This will definitely give you the best chance at capturing the lead or making an instant brand impression on the visitor. Again, Wolverine does a great job at this.
 

3. Branding

 
Finally, the last step to an effective banner ad campaign involves proper branding. Most of the time banner campaigns are run with the goal of getting users to take action (i.e. completing a web form, downloading something for free, opting in to an email newsletter or purchasing an item). AND most of the time, people generally don’t follow through on these actions. From an overall perspective, almost over 90% of people visiting a landing page will abort the page without taking action. So this leaves you with one less conversion and an impression or click-through wasted.
 
This is where branding comes in!

To get the most out your campaign, you want to make a BRAND impression on your visitor. Make sure your banner ad, landing page and main site are well branded consistently with quality photos, consistent color and consistent messaging. Even if someone were to click on your ad, view your landing page and leave without taking action, at least the ad impression or click isn’t going to waste. In fact, they will leave with a solid impression of what your company or service is about and this can very well lead to a repeat visit.
 
As you can see in the screenshots above, Wolverine does this very well by being presenting consistent that demonstrates high quality photography and video of their products.
 

In Conclusion

 
If you’re looking to get the most out of your banner ad campaign, make sure you target your ad properly, be consistent with your ad creative and your landing page and finally, be consistent with your overall brand look-n-feel to make a lasting impression on a visitor. If you do these three things, you’ll have a successfully banner ad campaign.
 
If you are small business and looking to start a new banner ad campaign, you can do so easily with MyAds, the self-serve banner ad service by FOX Audience Network. Visit MyAds.com for more information.
 
If you have any questions in regards to banner ad design, landing page design, branding or conversion optimization, please don’t hesitate to contact me directly at mlocke@mlwebco.com or visit us at http://www.mlwebco.com.
 
Happy campaigning!