How To Use Banner Ads

Banner ads are still an up and coming topic in the association space.  Currently many associations are using banner ads as ways to promote their vendors and sponsors and their products or current promotions.  So the first thing to ask is: do you leverage your own banner ad program to promote your organizational activities and generate leads?

Taking a step back, why reinvent the wheel when if you already have a successful way to promote your vendors, why not capitalize on that for your organization? So first the basics:

• What are Banner Ads: A form of online advertising that embeds an advertisement on a webpage with the intent of driving traffic to a website.  They typically play a significant role in enabling the rapid development of paid advertising on the internet as well as enabling a website to sell advertising.  The overall idea being, to get your name out in front of people who may not know who you are and attract them back to your website so you can further interact with them.
• Characteristics:
  • Images on a website
  • Served to multiple channels in the same way
  • Programs are based on distribution / volume / quantity
  • Metrics such as click thrus and impressions
  • Static content (ad / image)

Now that the basics are covered, we can move onto your digital transformation.  First thing here is to ask yourself, "Do we have banner ads we are currently leveraging for our organization?"  Again, if the advertising strategy is working for the vendors then why not use it?  You are already leveraging the metrics, too, so again, turn those to internal advertising. 

Now what about distribution of that banner ad?  Many have a limited view and only associate it to a newsletter or maybe the website but it is time to expand that view.  What about: Facebook posts, blogs, landing pages, LinkedIn posts, emails, etc.?  There are even use cases for putting a banner ad in an E-Commerce receipt, (which doesn't violate CAN-SPAM and CASL as you are delivering required information) which opens the opportunity to add in your message as well.  That said, they should be used in such instances when serving contextual information. 

Again, the point of a banner ad is to add value to your own programs.  The idea is if you leverage your own banner ads to promote programs you have the ability to get in front of prospects or leads that don't know your organization. So how should you go about getting your banner ads out there?

1. Utilize all of your Channels:
   • Emails
   • Blog Notifications
   • Website
   • Social Media
   • Ecommerce Receipts
     
     
2. Be strategic on placement of banner ads: Don't put the same ad/ message out on all channels
   
   
3. Leverage the data and target ads

To elaborate a bit on #2, we need to move away from the traditional model where there is one static image offered on every channel.  Now we have the ability to offer multi-media options like video and podcasts or the opportunity for cross-selling and/or contextual content which all have the metrics to track any of the following:

• Impressions
• Click-Thru
• Demographics
• Heat-Map
• Top Preforming Channels

With all of that power, comes great responsibility around defining your key metrics and goals.  Your goals should be separated by the program. For example, to measure effectiveness of your banner ads think about what channel you are using and what is likely the result.  Are you going for awareness or conversion?

Awareness: Impressions (webpage visits, email open rates, social media likes or views)

Conversion: Click Thru's (landing page views, email click thru's, social media shares or comments) or Form Submissions

If you are looking for more information on how to use banner ads check out our HighRoad U On Demand Webinar: Using Banner Ads to Attract Customers