Banner advertising (also known as online display) is one of the best tools a marketer has — if they know what they’re doing, how to do it properly and how to address the right audience.

What follows are some tips and techniques we’ve compiled based on our analysis of over 1 million banner ads.

Ready to take a look? If so, let’s dive in.

What do we know about banner advertising?

Well, we know that they have been around since the dawn of the World Wide Web. At first, there were only static banners available but as technology evolved and people began to experience increasingly faster Internet connections, animated banners made their way into the mainstream. Gifs were the pioneering animated formats, soon followed by Flash and recently, HTML5.

While in the past banners were only created by designer, nowadays, there are several professional tools available for marketers that allow them to create sophisticated banners in just a few minutes and with limited effort.

Bannersnack is one of these tools and the following information is based on the analytical data available on site, after a few years of activity.

Here are the 5 key findings of display advertising, after analyzing over 1 million banner ads:

1. Flash banner ads are dying

At one time, Flash was the primary tool used to create banner ads. For a while, it was the best choice when it came to professional and stylish looking designs. However good it was, Flash also came with a series of issues that in the end, proved to be fatal to its destiny.

What do we know?

During the last few years, 97% of marketers created HTML5 banners while only 3% of marketers have created flash animated banners.

Why did it happen?

There are two main reasons HTML5 prevailed as the most popular format for animated banners.

First, HTML5 is natively supported by all browsers. This means that unlike with Flash, you don’t need to install a third-party plug-in in order to be able to view the banners. While a marketer who designs banner will most certainly be willing to install flash, we cannot say the same thing about the end user, the targeted audience of the advertising campaign.

Secondly, FLASH consumes a lot of resources, especially on mobile devices, where it drains the battery more quickly than any other type of multimedia content.

2. Most used types of banners

There are actually three types of banners marketer use the most for their advertising campaigns:

1. The medium rectangle: 300×250
2. The large rectangle: 336×280
3. The leaderboard: 728×90

Use this information when you consider designing your own advertising banners. Make sure you have at least these three formats available before the start of your campaign.

There’s a good possibility that most of your advertising channels will us one of these three sizes. If you use Bannersnack on the other hand, you need not to worry about such things. The app allows you to automatically design a full set of banners that will be comprised of banners of all known sizes.

3. People love animated – but keep it smooth and minimalist

Minimalism is present in almost all designs of the last decade. Just take any printed magazine and browse its pages. Notice the ise of white spaces and the smooth and minimalist design. Then, try to remember how they used to look 30 years ago. Do the same with websites and blogs. Open any popular website or blog you know, browse a few pages and then, use Archive.org to take a quick look at how this website looked like when it was launched, if of course, it’s an old website.

What’s the key point? Don’t overcrowd your animated banners! Apart from the above reason, there’s another good one that should convince you I am giving you a valuable advice.

People feel that banners and advertising, in general, are intrusive. Overcrowded banners make you feel even more annoyed by making the whole page feel crowded and unfriendly.

If you want your banners to convert, you need to convince the audience with a clear message. A smooth and minimalist banner with a great CTA gives them a clear and comprehensible message.

Here’s an example from Apple:

4. Animated banners should be of high quality

What else do you need in order to capture the attention of your target audience? Well, above everything else, you need to come across as a great and professional company. There’s an old saying that if you want others to respect you, you should first respect yourself. This is also valid when it comes to professional advertising.

Therefore, respect yourself, respect your brand, respect your business and create the best designs possible for each of your campaigns. As a consequence, depending on the type of your ads, choose the following two options:

1. HTML5 banners. They look as good as Flash vector-based banners, they look professional. They are mobile ready and they are responsive.
2. MP4 videos. The compression ratio is almost impressive for this type of video format. You can upload a high-quality video that does not occupy more than a couple of megs on the server.

5. Banner ads convert

Banner ads are popular these days despite the wide proliferation of Ad Blocker apps available for all browsers and operating systems. Why? They generate enough revenue for them to be considered an effective marketing strategy.

According to Ironpaper, banner ad revenues are expected to grow at least 7% each year, from the US $19,554 million in 2016 to the incredible US $27,472 million in 2021.

[click_to_tweet tweet=”According to Ironpaper, banner ad revenues are expected to grow at least 7% each year, from the US $19,554 million in 2016 to the incredible US $27,472 million in 2021.” quote=”According to Ironpaper, banner ad revenues are expected to grow at least 7% each year, from the US $19,554 million in 2016 to the incredible US $27,472 million in 2021.” theme=”style2″]

These numbers only suggest that companies are still investing in banner advertising and that, despite the fact that people say they do not like banners, these ads are able to generate revenue against all odds.

Conclusion

Banner ads are one of the best advertising strategies available. What’s important is that despite the high popularity of ad blockers, banners still convert and they are able to deliver a great return on investment.

In order to be successful, however, you need to study the market, the competition and of course, the trends of the industry. This article provided you with five of the most important trends regarding banner advertising, trends that are specific to the present state of the marketing sector.

What do you think about these key findings and what other important facts about banner advertising do you know? Feel free to share in the comments section below.

About the Author: Robert Katai is a visual marketer and content strategist at Bannersnack.