Drake Design Studios
Banner Ads


Banner ad segmentation

Companies that use a single banner ad to advertise often have unrealistic expectations of what that ad can accomplish. They assume a single banner will attract everybody interested in any product, service or feature found on their company web site.

The problem with a one-banner-fits-all strategy is the banner spreads itself too thin. Its impact is diluted. Pitching a banner ad to appeal to everyone, it ends up appealing to no one.

Smart banner advertisers avoid this problem by practicing "segmentation." In the banner ad industry, this means targeting a particular segment or segments of your overall market, giving each an individual ad strategy. When applied correctly, a segmentation strategy can produce a very effective overall banner campaign.

What if you only have one product or service to offer? A segmentation strategy is still important.If your target audience has any demographic range — differences in age, income, education, gender, location, cultural background, profession, interests and hobbies, browsing habits, Web browser preference, to name just a few — your goal is to create individual banners that appeal to each of those segments.
Here are the steps to a successful segmented banner ad campaign:

1. Set goals and visitor criteria
2. Design multiple banners
3. Create a series of landing pages
4. Rotate ads
5. Measure your results

1. Set goals and visitor criteria
Identify the qualities of a successful banner campaign. This will help you determine what ads are effective at drawing traffic to your Web site. For example, a qualified lead is a visitor who clicks on a banner and meets a certain criteria, determined by you, the advertiser.

Some possible criteria could be making a purchase, going to a particular point on the site, filling a subscription or a registration, or spending a minimum amount of time on the site.

Some advertisers are lured into purchasing the most ad impressions for the lowest rates. The problem with this type of buying is that you have the least control over where your ad is featured and the least reach to your target audience.

Instead of purchasing ad space on a general, mainstream web site, purchase space to run your ad on a category or a page of a site where the purpose is closely related to your ad's content. If that site brings in a large amount of traffic, consider purchasing from search engines keywords or key phrases specific to what you offer. The cost-per-impression rate is higher, but it is far more effective at reaching your target audience.

2. Design multiple banners
A banner for a segment of your audience is a start, but multiple banners for each segment is better. Several banner designs for each segment of your audience can more effectively measure what type of ad works and what can be improved.

Don't assume all segments of your audience will respond the same way to the same type of banner ad. Thinking you can just change a few words or a graphic won't do. You may have to redesign your ad for any given segment to achieve the best results.

3. Create a series of landing pages
Each of your banners should lead to a "landing page" on your web site that specifically matches — or best matches — that banner's content. Visitors do not want to go to a home page where they must hunt for the product or information they seek. Ideally, each banner should go to a page on your site specially designed for that banner.

(Note: If you are using search engine optimization as an online marketing strategy, remember to create a robots.txt, or robots exclusion, file for all landing pages you use that mirror each other or are very similar.)

4. Rotate ads
Whether you've purchased a fixed number of ad impressions or an exclusive placement, you are almost always allowed to rotate several ads in that space. Rotate your ads evenly for at least a week to determine which one gives you the best results.

But don't be so quick to drop the other ads! You might achieve better overall results by leaving the other ads in place and rotating them less often.

Running just one ad in a space can lead to quicker banner burnout, that is, fewer people clicking on the banner through time. Other ads become a good backup system, prolonging your top banner's shelf life.

5. Measure your results
For truly accurate means of measuring your segmented banners' performance, you might need a service that provides more advanced tracking capabilities than simply measuring impression numbers and click-throughs. One well-known and affordable quality ad campaign service is WebTrends Live eCommerce Edition. This service allows online tracking of visitor behavior and purchasing patterns from each ad, using any criteria you set up.