So you’ve put together a winning line up of display placements and you’re ready to go live but how much thought have you put in to the star of the show, the creative? If you’re creative doesn’t cut the mustard then it’s highly likely that it will be ignored. Don’t panic though; we’ve put together some top tips to help make sure you’re creative draws in the crowds for 2013…
- Clear call to action. Make sure your call to action is visually clear and has a clear message. If you want people to buy your product then say ‘buy now’, if you want them to simply visit the site then tell them to click to ‘Find out more’. You can test and trial different call to actions to find out which one yields the best results.
- What is the key offer? Ensure the unique selling points for your brand and key offers are included on the creative itself to encourage users to click through. If you have any discounts or promotions then shout about them!
- Tailor the creative for different audiences. Not everyone will respond in the same way to a creative so try to have a variety of ads appealing to different audiences. For example, a car salesman would highlight completely different features of a car if selling to a young male compared to an elderly couple. Even simple changes such as background colour can help appeal to different genders.
- You can also tailor the message for retargeting campaigns, if from previous visits to your site you know what the user is interested in then use it to your advantage. For example, if a user has visited a sports retailer’s website looking at football boots, we can make the assumption that user is interested in football and target them with a football creative in future.
- Interaction – if possible allow the audience to interact with the creative. Retailers often do this by allowing users to navigate through multiple screens within the banner and some casino brands allow users to play games within a banner. In some cases you can complete registration forms within a banner without even needing to navigate to a new page.
- Consistency – ensure that the creative and landing page complement each other. The landing page message should be consistent with the creative message so the audience is clear about the offer and what is being asked of them.
- Live feeds – lived feeds can be great ways to excite your target audience. This is popular amongst bookmakers who show the live odds for sporting events within the creative.
- Animation – use animation to help the creative stand out on the page. Try to make the animation relevant though, animation for the sake of it can look tacky.
- Relevance – make the advert relevant in terms of messaging and imagery. This could mean seasonal relevance or just referencing the day of the week that the creative is shown. Increased relevance will help to capture the audience’s attention.
There are lots of ideas here but one thing to be wary of is over doing it, don’t cram everything in to one banner, test and trial to see what works well for you and don’t forget to update the creative regularly to avoid fatigue.
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