What Does Good Advertising Look A Few Tips For Creating Good Banners That Work
Management Summary
What does a good advertising medium need to stand out and attract customers? How does the customer perceive the advertising and what does he/she feel about it?
Our tips for creating banners that work
Of course, people are very different and have different perspectives, tastes, interests and moods. Nevertheless, we have subconscious mechanisms that work similarly for us. And since they are subconscious or unconscious, it is difficult for us to influence them. 70 to 90% of our purchasing decisions are made by the subconscious.
But how should advertising be structured so that it performs well? We share a few tips and tricks for well-functioning banner ads.
1. “I’ll tell you who you are”
To do good advertising, you have to know your brand/product well and know how to reach your target group. The more precisely and clearly you can answer the following questions, the more appropriate you can design your advertising:
- What is the USP of the product?
- Who is the target group of the product?
- What does the target group really need to be happy?
If you can answer these questions, you can also make good advertising.
And which formats are best?
And if you know your customer really well, you can fulfill their needs and wishes that they didn’t even know before looking at the advertisement. You can arouse desire.
2. “Well? – Aha!”
Storytelling is also an important point. The advertising must be structured logically / chronologically so that an aha effect is created. Humans are naturally curious and studies have shown that stories have always stuck with people best.
Over the course of advertising psychology, there have been various models (AIDA, PPPP) that summarize this.
Conclusion:Questions and answers, before and after scenarios, problem and solution. People can grasp contrasting situations and scenes well. Advertising needs a concept.
3. “Interesting, I’ll take a closer look” – Click
The perception of advertising, whether online or offline, is very short. It is only a fraction of a second in which a subconscious decision is made as to whether we take a closer look and have a basic interest.
If the banner can be grasped at a quick glance and is easy to understand, the viewer will be able to understand what it is about.
What does advertising need?
Text – clear, concrete, short. As a headline (with animated advertising, several headlines appear one after the other) which is recorded directly. As a subline – if you look closer.
Then optionally continuous text or lists – but only if there is enough area/space and/or you can animate it one after the other. Under no circumstances should you display too much text. This overwhelms the viewer and they won’t read it.
We recommend a call-to-action, or CTA for short (as a button or text) with a clear request for interaction, which is usually placed at the end of the animation or at the foot of the banner (reading flow from top to bottom and left to right).
Don’t forget the logo!
And please do not use negations/negatives in the text, such as “not expensive”. The word “not” doesn’t stick, only “expensive”.
Conclusion:A few crisp words that arouse curiosity.
4. “The people in the picture are so happy because they are using/having the product”
Emotions should also be aroused, because they awaken our memories and the content of the banner sticks. Unfortunately, many advertisers underestimate this topic; emotions can arouse the desire to buy and increase the need to own the product, and seemingly dry topics such as insurance can also be portrayed emotionally.
The best way to create emotions is through images/videos with people with whom the viewer can identify or empathize. If the people in the picture offer direct eye contact, the image has most likely reached the viewer’s subconscious.
Ideally, the target group can identify with the person or scene depicted or it is a desired scenario.
The image must be related to the product or provide a transition to the product (if necessary by supplementing it with text)
With a visual you can create accessibility, because invisible products (e.g. insurance tariffs) can be made visible with the help of a suitable visual.
This is what a good visual should be like:
- Friendly, bright, best with people (faces with direct gaze)
- Transition or connection from visual to product.
- Places where a disruptor or CTA can be placed without covering important parts of the visual
- If necessary, places where text can be positioned so that it can be read (otherwise put it on a colored box in the text)
- What can the picture be like? So does it look like it was quickly snapped by yourself or is it glossy, clean and obviously shot with models (“stocky”, as in stock photos bought?) A picture somewhere in between that fits the brand is recommended.
Conclusion:Pictures, videos, illustrations are recommended. Humans absorb visual stimuli faster and more effectively than text. And it should be positive, as this creates a positive connection to the brand and/or the product.
5. “A picture is worth a thousand words – a video is worth a thousand pictures”
We know it from ourselves: Something moves in the corner of our eye and we notice it immediately, even if we are concentrating on something else. It’s not at all surprising that moving advertising performs significantly better than static advertising.
Timing is important. You should be able to estimate how quickly a text can be read, as if the animations are too fast, you will no longer be able to grasp the text and/or the visual. If the animation is too slow, the viewer will quickly get bored, lose patience and scroll away.
Conclusion:Whether animated, with effects or video advertising – movement brings a lot.
A notice:There’s not much left: If the advertising flashes and twitches a lot, it seems off-putting and usually dubious and annoying.
6. “If so many people buy it, it must be good.”
Credibility and seriousness are important factors. You shouldn’t take the viewer for a fool and promise him things that he immediately sees as lies (as often happens in the area of weight loss products).
Because you know that people exhibit herd behavior, you can, for example, rely on testimonials or advertise with a large number of satisfied customers.
Conclusion:Stay realistic, do not create empty promises, testimonials or identification of the viewer.
7. “I like to accept gifts”
People like to receive something as a gift. That’s why goodies like promotional pens still work. With banners you can run competitions, offer product tests and discount codes.
8. “No, I am a young woman and I don’t need Viagra.”
As consumers, advertising really annoys us. She is everywhere and so much. But if the advertising fits our needs, we take a closer look.
Just as people with lovesickness only perceive couples in love around them, people who deal with certain topics perceive them as much more present. So if someone is renovating their home, they’re probably looking at home improvements, wallpaper and furnishings. Advertising can take advantage of this by targeting people with corresponding needs.
Conclusion:The advertising doesn’t have to appeal to everyone, just the target group. Know the needs of your target group!
9. “This is reduced / almost sold out – I have to grab it now!”
The more often people are confronted with a product, the more it becomes anchored in them. His perspective changes through subjective comparisons with the product he first saw. Advertising successfully uses this phenomenon for discounts and strike prices.
A similar effect is scarcity. The rarer and rarer a product is, the greater our desire for it. Everyone wants to have and be something special. With artificial scarcity, advertising can successfully use this effect and accelerate the purchasing decision.
10. “I know that – I recognize that”
Design is the be-all and end-all for our subconscious. We even recognize some big brands by their colors or shapes. Through a consistent design with a high recognition value and a lot of consistency, the brand is communicated stably and implies reliability and seriousness to the customer. This supports the purchase decision positively.
Conclusion:A good corporate design, even for small brands, is worth its weight in gold. Recognition must be possible in seconds. The big goal should be to find the balance between user expectations and novelty.
