6 Tips for Great Retail Banner Ads

I recently had the opportunity to attend some sessions at DIG South here in Charleston, SC and attended a session by Rocketfuel about the use of big data in display advertising. Rocketfuel talked at length about the immense volume of data they have access to given all of their advertisers. They conducted a study using this data to analyze the performance of banner ads across hundreds of advertisers and thousands of campaigns to learn which banner ad elements drive great conversion rates. Here are some of the conclusions they shared at DIG South regarding which elements in a banner drive the best conversion rates for retail advertisers.

6 Tips for Creating Banner Ads With Great Conversion Rates

1. Animate banner ads. This might go without saying for click through rates, but apparently this is a true for conversion rates as well.
2. Show the product in use. Specifically, showing a dress on a woman is better than showing it on a seamless white background.
3. Use the background of colors red and white for best CVR. The sadder tones of blue, black, and grey are the worst.
4. If possible, use products with the color of green, grey, and white. These showed the best conversion rates. This is tougher to change in some instances than a simple background color.
5. Special offers perform better than pricing. For example, “20% off all shirts” does better than “shirts from $9.99.”
6. Use one of these phrases for a call to action: (i.e. on a button) “start here,” “learn more,” and “view XYZ product.”

Best of luck in your quest to create the perfect banner ad.