To make online banner ad campaign successful you have to focus on a number of points. Here are some important tips to have an effective banner campaign.

Remember, if the banners are smaller and faster higher click throughs are expected on them rather that larger ones with lot of fancy images and text. The banner must attract the attention of the visitors as the page loads.

“Interface controls” like click boxes and radio buttons as seen in the standard windows, help to increase click-through rate. They need not work as the original images on the windows, just to make the visitors make the visitors understand that they are for clicking purposes.

Though different types of “calls to action” have been tried nothing has come out as effective as a too-simple “click here”, even more effective when placed at the right hand side of the banner, like an image on a standard windows button. Browsers read from left to right and so they must read a call to action at the end.

Sex has no place on a web banner. A pretty young lady in a glamorous outfit might grab the attention of male visitors. But it generates expectations on the kind of site they are clicking through to. For an adult site it is fine; otherwise the outcome will be an untargeted traffic.

When animation is used ensure that it incorporates horizontal movement. From the very early days human beings resorted to horizontal movement as a means of survival. So this horizontal motion is the best possible method to catch the attention of the audience.

Cleverly use banner text with the largest possible font, make the first letter of each word capital and use font such as Courier or Times New Roman to make it very simple and readable.

Abstain from tight demographic targeting. The pricing gets higher when you target more tightly, hence no actual benefits money wise. If the money is the same it is wiser to get it out to the widest possible audience with your name and logo. 

‘TESTING’ is a word for the first-time advertisers. Many of them run out, somehow get an ad banner designed and spend a huge sum on a campaign, but become surprised at the results. No need to say the result will be a negative one. Instead design a number of banners and run them out for very short periods, possibly on various ad networks. Such a strategy enables them to study where the customers are and what attracts them most and make respond best. Most ad networks allow these trial runs as well.

Check the results with a microscope. Never get satisfied with the number of click-throughs you get, find out how many are actually buying your product/service. The sales conversion rate on banner click-throughs is entirely different than traffic from other sources. This only shows the real effectiveness of an online banner ad campaign.

So the first-time ad campaigners must learn some things, test and retest and take every step slowly and carefully. Study the results well and proceed with the best works over time.