What Is a Banner Ad? [+4 Tips for Creating Stunning Banner Ads]

What is a banner ad?

A banner ad is a small rectangular graphic displayed on a website that promotes a product or service, often with eye-catching visuals and persuasive text.

Did you know that ads increase brand awareness by 80%? If you aren’t running pay-per-click (PPC) ads for your business, you’re missing an excellent opportunity to increase brand awareness and earn more conversions for your business.

If you’re looking to reach people where they browse, banner ads from Google are a great option. On this page, we’ll answer the question, “what is a banner ad?”, and talk about what banners ads can do for your business.

We’ll also provide you with four tips for creating stunning banner ads.

If you aren’t familiar with the world of paid advertising online, our team of experts will help guide you. Give us a call today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our paid advertising campaigns.

What is a banner ad?

If you’ve browsed online and seen a long ad at the top of the page for a company, you’ve seen a banner ad. Banner ads appear as a thin bar at the top or side of a page.

These paid ads are also known as web banners or display ads. Banner ads typically consist of an image or some form of multimedia. While they contain text, these ads focus on imagery.

Your banner ad can be static or animated. Most companies run banner ads through Google ads. Google reaches 90% of Internet users, making it one of the most popular choices for banner advertisements.

What is the right banner ad size?

To run a successful banner ad, you must scale your ad to the right size.

Here are a few standard ad banner sizes you’ll want to know when running banners ads on Google:

• Full banner ad: 468×60
• Half Banner ad: 234×60
• Vertical Banner ad: 120×240
• Leaderboard ad: 728×90

There are other sizes available, but these are the most commonly used banner ad sizes.

How much do banner ads cost?

If you’re going to invest time and effort into running banner ads from Google, you want to know how much it will cost you to run them. Banner ads operate similar to PPC ads. The cost to run them depends on how much you budget and your cost-per-click (CPC). Companies spend around $300 to $100 million per month, on average, for PPC campaigns.

While this isn’t the exact amount you should spend, it gives you an idea of how much other companies spend to run paid ads. This estimated amount budgets for regular PPC ads and Display ads (like banner ads). Additionally, the average CPC for banner ads is under $1.

Your banner ads cost will vary depending upon your budget and your CPC.

How do banner ads benefit my business?

Banners ads from Google offer many benefits to your business. Let’s take a look at five benefits of investing in Google Display banner ads.

1. They increase customer traffic

Banner ads help increase traffic to your website. Since these ads appear on other sites, they help you reach people browsing on those sites and drive them to your page. If you create an effective and compelling banner ad, you’ll increase traffic to your site.

People will see your ad and want to click on it to learn more. It’s a great benefit to your business that comes at a low cost for each click to your ad.

2. They increase sales

Banner ads from Google help increase sales for your business. It puts your business in front of leads and gets them to check out your company. These ads encourage people to buy a particular product or use specific services.

It’s an excellent opportunity to visually entice people to check out your business. You can use banner ads to show pictures of your products and provide short highlights of your product.

3. They help you spread the word about special discounts or promotions

If you have a sale going on at your store or want to offer a special discount to online shoppers, banner ads help you spread the word about your promotion. These ads are a great way to help others learn about your offer. It’s a great way to encourage sales, too.

If people see you’re offering a discount or special price, it entices them to click on your ad for more information. You help more people take advantage of your offer, which increases sales for your business.

4. They help you build brand awareness

Banner ads from Google help you build brand awareness. With banner ads, you expose users to your brand and help them become familiar with your business, products, and services. Even if someone doesn’t click on your ad, they’ll still become more familiar with your brand every time they see an advertisement for your company  When they come across your brand later, whether it’s through a search or another ad, they’ll recognize it and be more likely to choose your brand over the competition.

5. They help you retarget prospects

Many people will engage with your products and brand but won’t convert right away. You don’t want to miss out on these leads for your business. Google banner ads provide you with the opportunity to display your products to your audience again and get them to consider buying.

With banner ads, you retarget your products to leads previously interested. You show them an ad that has the product they previously viewed. Upon seeing this ad, the user will remember your business and your product.

It creates an opportunity for you to get those leads to convert. You can create a banner ad that showcases the product or your business and get those leads to click on it. It helps you keep your brand at the forefront of users’ minds and get them to ultimately choose your business.

4 best practices to create stunning, effective banner ads

If you want to start using banner ads to help you increase traffic and sales for your business, check out these four banner ads best practices to help you create compelling ads.

1. Establish your target audience

Before you design a banner ad, you must know your target audience well. You want to create an ad that appeals to them and will get them to click, visit your site, and purchase your products. Think about your core audience.

Who is most likely to purchase your products? Establish information like demographics, buying habits, and interests to help you get a well-rounded profile of your target audience. You must consider what your audience wants and how they engage with ads.

What kinds of ads catch their attention? You’ll want to consider what type of ad copy appeals to your audience and makes them more likely to click on your ad. When you establish your target audience, you’ll create more effective display ads that engage your audience.

2. Use high-quality visuals

When you’re designing your banner ad, you must add a high-quality visual to your banner. This element is one of the most crucial practices because the visual catch your audience’s attention. If you don’t have a high-quality visual, you’ll deter people from engaging with your ad.

Make your visuals clear and high-quality. Don’t use any photos that are pixelated or blurry. You want your audience to see what’s depicted in your banner ad easily.

By adding high-quality visuals, you’ll get more people to click on your ad and interact with it.

3. Select readable font

Banner ads from Google aren’t just visual ads. They include text, too. When you’re designing your ad, choose fonts that are easily readable for your audience.

You’ll want to choose web-safe fonts for your ad. These are fonts that easily readable and display well on the web. In addition to the font style, you’ll also want to ensure you’re using the right font size.

You must consider your banner ad dimensions when you’re choosing your font size. It’s essential to ensure that your font size makes your ad readable, but you don’t want it to be too big and take over the entire space. Lastly, you’ll want to choose the right font color.

If you choose a bright yellow font on a white background, your audience may not be able to read your font. You’ll want to ensure you’re selecting the right font color for your banner ad that your audience can easily see and read.

4. Include the right elements in your banner ad

If you want to make successful banner ads, you must include the correct elements to provide your audience with enough information and engage them. Here are the four core elements to a good banner ad:

Company logo

When you create a banner ad, include your company logo in your ad. If you want to build brand recognition with your audience, you must include a logo.

It will help people get more familiar with your business and remember your business later.

Expressed value

If you want to get people to click on your ad, you need to showcase the value of your product or service. How does your product or service benefit your audience? You should include a unique selling point or offer that appeals to your audience and their situation.

In this example, Brown-Daub Hyundai’s motion banner ad offers complimentary warning light scans and tire checks plus inflation. This ad is great for Hyundai owners looking to get their cars inspected. It’s valuable to them because they would get these two services for free, which saves them money with their inspection.

Visual element

If you want to create an eye-catching banner ad, you must include a visual component.

Visual elements draw your audience in and get them to notice your ad. Your visual elements must remain relevant to your ad. If you’re creating an ad about clothing, your ad should contain photos of clothes.

A clothing ad that includes kitchenware wouldn’t be relevant. By choosing the right visual elements, you’ll create a banner ad that’s more visually appealing for your audience.

Call to action (CTA) button

If you want to drive success with your banner ad, you need a compelling call to action (CTA) button. Your CTA button influences whether your audience clicks on your ad or keeps scrolling.

Your banner should tell your audience exactly what to expect if they click on your ad. In this banner ad example, people know if they click on the ad, they’ll get the try the product for free. It’s a clear CTA that tells users what will happen when they click on the ad.

To follow banner ad best practices, include an actionable CTA that tells your audience what happens when they click on your ad.

Good agencies have more than 50 testimonials.

Great agencies have more than 100 testimonials.

WebFX has over 1,100+ glowing client testimonials.

See What Makes Us Stand out

Start using banner ads today to grow your business online

If you’re looking for a way to advertise your business and drive more traffic to your site, banner ads are a great way to help you earn more leads for your business. These ads help you reach people who want to hear from your company. Aren’t sure how to get started with banner ads?

We have a team of over 500 advertising experts that will help you create compelling and engaging banner ads. With over a decade of experience, you can count on our team to help you create banner ads that drive more traffic and leads for your business. Ready to learn more about banner ads?

Contact us online or call us today at 888-601-5359 to speak with a strategist about our paid advertising campaigns.