Online Advertising & Marketing Proffesional blog

Do you have problem: Low-readability?

Solution: Change font smoothing in photoshop.

Try this (adobe photoshop CS4 interface) and find the best smoothing option:

Choose font smoothing

 (None, Sharp, Crisp, Strong, Smooth) 

Depending on factors like font, background, font size, font color , you have to choose the best option.

Closer look

Always try different options, sometimes sharp will be too pixelated, smooth will be too blurry.

Use swf version 8 (more than 98% world wide penetration) instead of swf version 6

Always re-check technical requirements anyway!!! And don’t forget about gif/jpg backups!

for simple banners and rich media banners.
Most ad-networks support swf v8

Source: ADOBE FLASH v PENETRATION

Worldwide Ubiquity of Adobe Flash Player by Version – December 2008

Click-Through-Rate (CTR)

The number of times a link is clicked on divided by the number of impressions. Main Performance Indicator for Online ads.

For example CTR 1%  =  1000 impressions and 10 clicks

CTR = clicks/Impressions*100

Or simple formula in excel:

Excel formula

The same banner or banner slot or banner campaign – looses CTR during time.

Ad unit burnout:

For example banner 728×90 Leaderboard, FFW – Flat Rate Week ad placing model:

• Day 1 CTR = 0,9%
• Day 2 CTR = 0,56%
• Day 3 CTR = 0,21%
• Day 4 CTR = 0,08%
• …
• Day 10 CTR = 0,05%

Online Campaign Burnout:

Online Ad Campaign Overal Burnout - Visits only, without Impressions. Google Analytics.

Banner burnout depends on:

• Time period
• Unique visitors per time period  (more unique = higher CTR per time, lower burnout per time) But don’t forget – sites with high loyalty have lot of returning visitors = low unique views.
• Frequency for unique user (lower frequency = bigger CTR) 
• Message. Strong message = better result (more complicated message = lower CTR, higher burnout)
• Content and Ad. More contextual = more constant CTR during period (It’s wrong to say that static GIF has no attractiveness, if you use static GIF like part of content (with relevant ad content) you will have constant click-rate, high conversions)

How to avoid high burnout rate:

• Simple, strong message
• Don’t hide your offer
• Call to Action
• Don’t use long animations (bullshit – scenarios) with meaningless intra-frames.
• Use mixed-form tactics: Animated banner + Static banner + Text Ad (imitating) banner + Dynamic content banner.
• Change form of message and offer (You can leave core messages the same but you can change syntax)
• Don’t fool yourself with mantras like: “Creativity will help us”, 1/10000 ads goes to Cannes, others must do hard work for your money.
• Use mixed channels – different sites.
• Check your campaign KPI’s during campaign period.
• By the end of campaign – use simple static frame with messages and logos.