Email marketing: what it is and how to implement it

Banner advertising

 The world of advertising is fast-moving, dynamic, and spontaneous - and has largely shifted to digital in recent years. Classic static print advertising has long since given way to colorful, lively online advertising in many areas and there is hardly a website left without banner advertising.

This may be one of the reasons why this form of advertising is sometimes fraught with prejudice and some marketing experts even describe it as “no longer up-to-date”.

The facts and figures refute these assumptions, because according to a study by Statista, for example, more sales have been generated from year to year with the help of display ads by German companies since 2015. According to a forecast, sales on the German market in 2022 will be over 5700 million euros.

This proves that advertising with banner ads can still be used as a very effective marketing tool. In the B2B environment, in particular, strategic display advertising has great potential compared to print advertising.

Played out in a suitable environment and provided with a coherent design, you can use banner advertising to specifically address your desired target group - printed advertising, with its high wastage, is never as accurate.

What is banner advertising?

Banner ads are the digital and internet-based counterparts of classic print ads. The desired advertising message is embedded as a static or animated graphic in an advertising space provided by the search engine. In the best case, the viewer feels addressed by it, clicks on the online advertising, and is thus forwarded to the advertiser's website.

The ad blocker represents a hurdle in the display environment. To avoid sensory overload on the web, a large number of people rely on it so that they no longer see any display ads. In addition, the phenomenon of banner blindness can already be observed, ie that some users no longer notice banner ads at all.

As far as the formats of the banners are concerned, there are clear guidelines that still leave plenty of room for creativity. On the one hand, advertisers have to adhere to fixed advertising formats that the banners must have to receive a suitable advertising placement. These are booked into the associated campaigns.

In addition to the advertising material, the relevant target group must also be defined. This must be narrowed down in advance using various criteria so that your display banner is tailored as precisely as possible to this in the end. Banner advertising is known to be most successful in an advertising environment that focuses on the user and their needs.

Different application types of banner ads

But for what purposes is display advertising actually the right form of advertising?

• Banner advertising is ideal for acquiring new customers since the targeting can be aimed at the desired target customer and they feel specifically addressed by it.

• Display advertising can also be used to arouse interest in niche products or to increase their attractiveness. Therefore, display banners are often used to draw attention to products/topics that have not yet been actively searched for by users, but have certain market relevance.

• Thanks to their wide reach, banners are a popular means of increasing brand awareness in online advertising.

• Once brand awareness is established, any product update or product launch can be disseminated. At this point, advertising in the form of retargeting is particularly relevant.

• Display banner ads are often used to lead the user to a website and thus increase traffic and fill the funnel. This can then be guided through the customer journey again in a targeted manner via retargeting or linking to other channels.

Why you should place banner advertising in B2B

Banner advertising has long been the order of the day in B2C marketing, but there are still challenges to be overcome in the B2B area - for example, it is extremely challenging to accommodate the advantages of a complex offer that requires explanation in comparatively small advertising space.

However, the effort pays off through various advantages compared to other formats, such as printed advertising:

• Potential providers and partners are searched to a large extent via the Internet. By clicking on a banner, the user is taken directly to your website without any media disruption in the information processing.

• Your brand awareness can be significantly strengthened with banner advertising: As with the printed poster, your brand will remain in the memory of the user even without a click and, if necessary, they will actively search for it at a later point in time. However, the chance of addressing potentially interested parties is comparatively higher online, thanks to the limited recipient radius and lower wastage.

• With much more precise targeting than in the print environment, your target group can be narrowed down much more and your banner will only be displayed to those users for whom it is really relevant.

• In contrast to print ads, the costs for display ads are much lower - as a rule, you only pay per click.

• The performance of banner advertising is measurable: Using KPIs such as click rate or conversion rate, you can find out, for example, whether your banner is attractively designed and whether it was displayed in the right environment.

• This measurability also enables A/B testing, with which you can directly compare at least two different versions of your banner and evaluate and optimize their performance accordingly.

The perfect advertising banner

For your banner ad to be captivating at first glance, not only the design but also the content must be optimally structured. If your banner is published in a suitable environment with potentially interested users, that's only half the battle. At least as important for the success of your advertising banner is the to-the-point content of your advertising material.

There is no ideal secret recipe for a harmonious mix of text and image. Rather, creating banners is a balancing act that requires strong empathy with your target audience and a few points to keep in mind regarding your advertising message.

But when can a display banner be described as successful? Ultimately, what metric defines whether it's worth keeping a campaign active? No measurable sales are generated by clicks or ad impressions alone. Therefore, ideally, campaign planning must go one step further.

Only an appropriate landing page with the possibility of conversion allows a meaningful track record in the form of the conversion rate. This shows you how many visitors actually used your call-to-action and followed your call-to-action.

Keep the goal in mind

Your display banner only has a few seconds to grab the attention and interest of the user. The top priority of successful banner advertising is therefore to address the user directly with the right message, to hold them, and finally to convince them of your brand, service, or product.

To be able to achieve this goal, you need a clear idea of ​​what emotions you want to trigger with your banner and at the same time a strategy for implementing the necessary measures.

Therefore, plan enough time for your strategy and answer the following questions, among others:

• Who is my buyer persona/target group?

• Which product or topic or which service do I want to market?

• Is my target group on suitable platforms so that I can address them with display ads?

What you should consider when designing your advertising material

The biggest challenge when designing advertising banners is to strike the right balance between creativity and clarity. Your online advertising in the form of display banners should stand out with an attractive design that is highly recognizable and contains a clear message.

Especially in the B2B environment, it is inevitable to strategically arrange your complex content on your graphic so that your target group quickly understands what is to be conveyed.

When viewing a banner, the 2-second rule applies. Within these two seconds, the user must be able to recognize three essential pieces of information:

• "Who am I addressing here?"

• This question is already answered for the user with the help of your company logo. A neat corporate design strengthens your recognition value.

• "Which product or service am I being offered?"

• Express your promised offer briefly and concisely, but convincingly.

• "What do I have to do to benefit from the offer?"

• With a color-contrasting call-to-action or call-to-benefit, you address the user in a targeted manner and lead him to your website.

The following points will help you in creating your advertising material:

• Choose the appropriate banner format for your content.

• Make sure that your overall design looks clean and well-structured.

• Less is more: Build only as much as necessary, not as much as possible. Otherwise, your banner will quickly appear overloaded and the user may overlook the primary message.

• Avoid long texts and replace them with pictorial language, icons, or animations. Therefore, always adapt your language to the target audience.

• Include a meaningful visual - either to arouse emotions or to strengthen your recognition value.

• Match the design of your banner to your corporate identity and comply with the design specifications on your website banner ads so that the user has a common thread through the entire offer.

Budget and targeting for your banner ads

Depending on the objective, the budget for a new campaign can range from “small” to “extremely generous” and is a key factor in determining the scope of the campaign. The prices for printed ads often only start in the four-digit range and are therefore several times higher than the costs for banner advertising.

On the one hand, this is due to the material costs that are eliminated with digital ad placement - on the other hand, a completely different, much more attractive billing model is used for display banners. Here, as an advertiser, you usually pay per click.

The click price is usually in the cent range, so you can run your campaign with a small budget so that the banners are displayed.

Depending on what the campaign goal is and how large the target group is, the budget must be adjusted accordingly. The complexity of the product to be marketed is also often decisive. With complex products, users need several contact points, so you have to calculate a larger budget than for simple or already-known products.

Costs at a glance

Display advertising is not only cheaper than print campaigns, but it also offers you the choice between two different billing models.

With the widespread CPC model (cost-per-click), you pay a certain amount per click on your advertising banner. There is no charge if users see your ad without clicking on it. You will only be charged if your display banner also had a measurable interaction.

The alternative is the CPM model (cost-per-mille) - also known as the TCP model (cost per thousand contacts) - and does not refer to the number of clicks, but to the number of views of your advertising. In this case, you will be billed for every thousandth contact with the ad.

Target the right audience

The term "targeting" describes the precise addressing of a previously defined target group for an online campaign. Advertising with targeting is - as the name implies - much more accurate because it is only displayed to potential prospects if they have been correctly narrowed down.

There are numerous options available to you, which can also be combined:

• With keyword-related targeting, your banner ads reach users who are looking for a specific product or service. The advertising approach is tailored to the search queries of the user over the past few days.

• With demographic targeting, the target group is divided into categories based on characteristics such as age, gender, and language.

• Contextual and behavioral targeting offers the possibility to reach users based on their interests as well as their search and purchase behavior.

• For example, geographic targeting allows you to limit your online banner ads to your catchment area for buyers. Your banner will not even be displayed to users outside of the sales area.

• Retargeting only addresses users who have already had at least one initial contact with your company. With this option, a user can be strategically guided through the customer journey.

Conclusion: Why you should start directly with banner advertising

Banner advertising is a significant step ahead of other marketing measures in many respects: Compared to print advertising, banner advertising on the Internet can be used with small budgets. Your reach is not just a vague estimation, but a precisely measurable value.

All KPIs can be used excellently as a basis for simple A/B testing, to analyze and optimize a campaign. The possibility of numerous targeting options also enables selective publication of your advertising message.

The placement of display banners in an optimally coordinated environment reduces wastage to a minimum - so you can be sure that your advertising is primarily displayed to your desired audience. Especially in the B2B environment, in which, in contrast to B2C, potential business partners and not private end consumers are to be addressed, the desired target group is very limited.

Contrary to doubting voices, banner advertising is also highly effective in B2B marketing and should become an integral part of your marketing strategy. B2B websites can, for example, generate active leads for sales and thus real sales from simple clicks with the help of cleverly used display advertising.