Re: UKNM: Investing in banner creative

[Ray Taylor]

We have run campaigns where multiple banners have been rotated at random on

a site, some good banners and some deliberately questionable, and the

difference in click through rates for each banner is instantly apparent from

the campaigns stats.


We always analyse (among many other things) cost per click.


Taking an example (ficticious):


If the media budget is �5,000 (is that what you mean by "tiny"?),

impressions are bought at �25 CPM the average CTR 2%, then:


Total number of impressions is 200,000

Total number of clicks is 4000

Cost per click is �1.25


If you designed one banner and it did not work too well on response and

produced only a 1% click through, then the results would be thus:


Total number of impressions is 200,000

Total number of clicks is 2000

Cost per click is �2.50


The ratios work whether it's �500 or �500,000 being spent.


Correspondingly, the cost per sale or per action is doubled if the CTR

doubles (obviously).


More importantly, the client's brand is at stake. Poorly executed banner

creative will at best produce low response, at worst make the advertiser and

its brand look stupid.


If the client has only "tiny" budgets to spend and they want traffic, they

might be better off spending it on search engine and other site promotion

rather than banners.


The point to emphasise is that every time you place an ad, even a tiny

little ad, you expose the brand good or bad. Even a single column classifed

ad, or a one-off job ad exposes the brand.


If they are after response, spending on the banner is as important as

spending on the media (not the same amounts, of course). I have just

convinced a client to run an interactive html banner at three of four times

the cost of an animated gif on the basis that it could double the CTR.


Work it out. Using the ficticious example above


- �5,000 media, �200 creative, �25 CPM, 2% CTR = 4000 clicks

- �4,200 media, �1000 creative, �25 CPM, 4% CTR = 6720 clicks


I repeat, it's not just about click-through, but CTR and cost per click are

the easiest comparable results to measure with a web campaign.


And what's the point of spending a tiny budget on online media if you don't

learn from the results?


But bear in mind some of the most expensive design agencies in the UK

produce crap banner creative for banners because they are hardly more

experienced that your clients. It's not yet a problem you can spend your way

out of.


You could try this as a tactic to convince them. Take whatever they produce,

have an external designer improve it (or design their own) and run both

banners rotating at random for equal numbers of impressions, and measure the

relative CTR.


If your budget won't stretch to paying a professional to do it, send the

client's banner to me (off list) and I will make some suggestions to improve

it, or if you wish I will redesign it myself. I am not a designer but given

the poor quality of so many banners, I can often do a better job than some

designers (..Ray ducks down below the wall to hide from righteous

indignation..).


Of course the best thing to do is to get the brief right in the first place.

Animated banners should be story-boarded and compared with a check-list of

imperatives like - strong call to action, clear message, good offer, etc.


Want to see some excellent banner creative from those lovely people at

Designercity? Look out for the Tesco free internet access banners now

showing. They beat the socks off the Virgin attempt at the same offer.


Anyone still reading at this point might want to consider joining the UK

Online Advertising discussion group and discussing this in more (?) detail.

I suspect lots of people on this list are already bored with discussion

about CPM, CTR and CPC. Email me off list and I will add you to UKOA. Thanks

again Sam for allowing the plug. This is the last time I will mention it

here.


Ray Taylor +44 181 639 0015

taylornmcadplan [dot] com

NMC/Adplan www.nmcadplan.com

Web advertising? If you're going to do it, do it right. Our advice is free,

our media plans save money, boost ROI, and help you get it right FIRST TIME 

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