Graphical Banners: What Do People Click On?
The advantage of running so many sites is that I get to experiment with many different ad formats and placements. This goes a long way in helping me see what is effective and relaying this information to my sponsors. Sure they can see their individual CTR (click-through rate), but they aren’t able to compare how their ads do against the other ads on the page. I find it amazing how much of a difference the design of an ad does with regards to its CTR. Okay, not really “amazed”, but am definitely fascinated.
I am starting to see these graphical ads outperform the textads on many of these sites and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that the well-designed ads are the ones getting clicked. Two of the ads on the 9rules hover between 3.5%-4.0% CTR, which to me is outstanding for a pretty looking site.
I thought it would be nice if I put up some of the ads that we feature and show you how they compare with each so you can see what is effective with regards towards design.
Now I can tell you that the IconBuffet and Squarespace ads smash the Campaign Monitor and Blinksale ads by a margin of at least 2:1. To me both are more cleanly designed and I think that greatly effects the intrigue of them. If something looks nice don’t you want to go further with it to see where it leads? In defense of Campaign Monitor they just sent us a new creative so we will see if this boosts the CTR any.
Clearly this is another example of when great design wins out and that is really my vision for the new 9rules Ad Network. I am a sucker for beautiful things and it’s tough for me to deal with ugly ads. The only solution that I have found that I like is the DECK, but that is limited to 3 sites. However, most of the ads are clean and from what I hear from the sponsors really effective.
The last two years have been all about text ads, but I think this year you will again see a greater push for graphical ads as more and more companies jump online fighting for online real estate. All of them will want a decent CTR and it is best to be armed with the knowledge of what works and what doesn’t so that you may make your site more attractive for them.
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11 opinions for Graphical Banners: What Do People Click On?
(Mary-Ann Horley)
Jan 12, 2006 at 2:37 pm
[…] Workboxers has a post about how graphic ads are beginning to out-perform text ads for the first time in years. The essential caveat is that both the ads and the site must be well-designed. […]
tim
Jan 12, 2006 at 3:12 pm
Thanks Scrivs for such a great post. I’m bored by text ads and welcome good banners more than warmly. I’d be interested in knowing, what are the requirements to display such great ads. I mean, is it all about page views, or about your specific target audience, or probably both… if you can give some insights, that’d be great.
Scrivs
Jan 12, 2006 at 3:24 pm
Tim: Thanks for the kind words. I think Mary-Ann does a great job of explaining why certain ads work and some don’t in the trackback right above your comment. She also made a comment in this Whitespace entry:
For referential sites I think text ads would definitely work better, but on sites where the audience is more targetted and known by the author it would be in their best interest to help advertisers develop ads that fit the audience.
tim
Jan 12, 2006 at 3:29 pm
Thx Scrivs - Agree, Mary-Ann did a good job.
Still wondering how you got in business with Icon Buffet.. ;-)
Scrivs
Jan 12, 2006 at 3:32 pm
Well I know Josh and simply asked him if he wanted to advertise on our sites. Really quite simple.
tim
Jan 12, 2006 at 3:39 pm
Couldn’t be simpler for sure ! Thanks :-)
Scrivs
Jan 12, 2006 at 4:03 pm
Tim: Yeah it’s amazing what a simple email will do. I think we all forget that and expect the advertisers to come right to us.
Chris Griffin
Jan 12, 2006 at 8:35 pm
After taking a look at the ads on 9rules.com, to give it more context to why one ad works versus another rather than looking at the ads you posted on here. I have a few thoughts.
If I remember correctly, I think all of these ads were also running before the 9rules redesign except the current IconBuffet ad.
You said the IconBuffet & Squarespace ads were doing better than the Blinksale & Campaign Monitor. I wonder if it has to do with the color palette chosen for the current design.
For example, The two ads that are doing well are mostly black & gray which has much more contrast than Blinksale & Campaign Monitor from the current design. The lesser two tend to blend into the current design more. At a glance, those ads almost look like part of the website.
Your previous design, had alot more black and gray than your previous. So I wonder how Squarespace & IconBuffet (I don’t think that’s the same ad as ran before) was doing before the redesign.
Maybe compare the results from before the redesign and after the redesign and maybe it could produce some interesting results.
Maybe a Site ReDesign should prompt the client of the ad to redesign the ad.
Just a thought.
Chris Griffin
Jan 12, 2006 at 8:37 pm
Grammar Correction - 5th paragraph down.
*Your previous design, had alot more black and gray than your current design.
Steve Hubbard
Jan 12, 2006 at 11:30 pm
Perhaps some consideration should also be given to the products and/or services each advertiser offers.
Icon Bufffet and Squarespace are relevant to anyone interested in producing websites, be they individuals wanting to create a hobby blog or companies wanting to display a flashy corporate site. Blinksale and Campaign Monitor, on the other hand, are only really relevant to businesses - I don’t imagine there are many individuals needing to forward email newsletters or invoices.
Therefore, it’s reasonable to expect a greater click through for the sites that a more relevant to a much larger audience.
Mark
Jan 14, 2006 at 1:52 am
Steve’s response (10) is right on the money. The success of the ads has more to do with your audience at Whitespace than they do the graphical design. For instance, the overwhleming majority of your readers on Whitespace are bloggers. From what I’ve gathered over the years from reading Whitespace those bloggers are designers, developers and some business types whose online presence (their portfolio, business site…) is centered around their blog. Do these folks really use or have a need for CampaignMonitor? No. Not when they have a blog that publishes feeds, and MT Notifier and the like to inform folks via email when they have something new to say. For the audience at Whitespace, icons are the hot item now, they’re everywhere — you can even find them all over 9rules new pages.
Blinksale has been talked to death already amongst the web / blogger community, and Squarespace, I don’t know, perhaps we bloggers are always on the lookout for a better tool.
The point is, it’s what’s the hot need at the moment moreso than the design — albiet design is important and does lend credibility - just perhaps not as much as you’re giving it here in your post.
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