Top Tips To Increase Banner Ads CTR
Most traditional marketers are strongly in favor of banner ads. Why shouldn't they be? Creating attention-grabbing eLearning banner ads provides you with a cost-effective way to build awareness. It's a well-tested strategy that brings results. And, if done correctly, banner campaigns offer many perks.
I'm all in when it comes to running banner ads because not only can they drive traffic to your landing pages, they can also help develop highly qualified leads. But how can one secure the effectiveness of such a campaign? Read on to find out!
How To Improve CTR For Display Advertising Campaigns
When talking about eLearning banner ads, click-through rate is very important, especially if you're promoting a lead magnet, like an eBook or a live event, or even a free trial. What is a good CTR for a banner ad, you might ask? Well, like all things in life, it depends on several factors.
Plenty of marketers are struggling to rise above a few percentage points, not to mention how having a low CTR takes a toll both on your confidence and your performance.
But worry not, because with a bit of optimization there are ways to improve the effectiveness of your banners.
Here's where you should focus if you want to improve your eLearning banners CTR:
1. Mobile-First Delivery
If you want higher click-through rates, this one is a no-brainer. The need to optimize your adverts for mobile has been spoken of many times.
Did you know that by 2022 there is a prediction that mobile will account for 77.2% of all digital ad spend? So, talking about having a mobile-first strategy clearly makes a lot of sense.
Of course, this doesn't mean that CTR is the only means of conversion. But, if you measure the success of your eLearning banner ads by this metric, you need to think mobile-first.
So, please make sure to scale your campaigns from the smallest size to the largest. In fact, this is crucial for a successful mobile-first strategy.
2. Create Banners That Speak To Your Ideal Buyers
By doing a bit of research, I found a great post by Moz, stating that 40% of viewers are more likely to engage with a display ad if it is tailored to address their needs. So, where am I going with this? Content is king, but personalization and custom content marketing campaigns have even more robust results.
On this note, my advice is to avoid creating standardized banners. Instead, focus on tailoring your advert to your consumers. By utilizing targeted messaging or taking advantage of external factors, you are more likely to engage their interest. Meaning, relevance is vital. So, make sure to use it to your advantage!
For example, a great way to increase the relevance of your eLearning banner ad campaigns is to schedule them near key dates and events. If you’re planning a webinar or have published an eBook on a specific topic, you can target viewers that have shown interest in similar content before.
Also, it's important to check how the time of day and days of the week impact your CTR rates. For instance, maybe you'll notice that engagement is higher from 6 am to 1 pm. Or, there's a chance you might see your CTR rates drop as much as 12% during the week, while on the weekend, they might bring more conversions.
By constantly checking data and testing your campaigns, you'll eventually make it work!
Please note that you can find plenty of publishing platforms to run your eLearning banner ads and bring in fresh leads in case your website traffic is low. This way, you get relevance and increased traffic with one slick move!
3. Use Location and Behavioral Targeting For More Relevance
Now, if you're running banner ads and targeting people from many different countries, you will see various CTRs. Why is that? Well, people who live in different countries resonate distinctly with your messaging and your brand.
So, make sure to focus on the data of your reports. By continuously checking and testing these campaigns, you'll manage to assess the results and see why some ads work and others don't. The above will help you come up with strategies to increase your CTR.
Also, you might want to try behavioral targeting. From experience, I can say that highly personalized and timely marketing requires you to know your audience. And, of course, how this audience interacts with your business.
Relevance is critical in the noisy world of digital marketing. It's the variable that will help you reach the right audience. But it's no longer enough to send targeted messages based solely on your audience's demographics or interests—effective marketing also uses data about how an audience interacts with a business.
For example, behavioral targeting can help you determine which advertisements and messages will resonate most with your audience based on their activities — be it actions they take on your website or how often they log into your app, etc.
Savvy eLearning marketers like yourself can leverage behavioral data to trigger personalized marketing. That way, you have the opportunity to connect with prospects and customers who are most likely to engage with your app, purchase your products, or contract your services.
You can use behavioral targeting data to create audience segments based on actions or inactions. Need more details?
Find some helpful tips to increase your CTR and the effectiveness of your campaigns on our popup banner ads guide for eLearning marketers.
4. Optimize Your Copywriting, Visuals, And CTAs
Even the most legendary idea in the world will fail if you can't manage to speak to your audience in a resonating way. But, if you implement an eLearning banner ads campaign correctly, you'll see those conversions skyrocket.
When talking about what a good CTR or click-through rate actually is, simply put, there is no one-size-fits-all answer. Why you might ask...Well, a good click-through rate always depends on your niche.
Let me share some numbers so that you get a better understanding. When we run popup banners on our L&D-related pages, we get 53,000–102,000 impressions and 1,150–2,000 clicks. As a result, we have an average CTR from 1.96% to 2.17%. For the eLearning niche, these numbers are top class, especially in the B2B sector.
Our marketing team has tried and tested tons of visuals and copies to identify best practices and reach a good banner ads CTR. Above all, segmentation and personalization are what will get the job done.
Equally, by tailoring your messages, visuals, and CTAs to each purpose and buyer persona, you achieve higher CTR because of your personalized marketing efforts.
But, even if you have high average CTRs when they don't bring relevant conversions, you are probably not attracting people that are likely to convert. In this case, you need to make your targeting less broad, use more relevant ad copy, or optimize for both to get the results you need.
Before any campaign, always focus on keyword research to give the audience what they are craving. You might as well try to find fitting long-tail keywords and use them in your headline and copy.
What Types Of eLearning Banner Ads Should I Be Testing?
Banner advertising comes in many different types, shapes, and sizes. First off, we have the run of site banners. More specifically, each shape/size is often referred to by a specific name (button, inline, leaderboard, skyscraper, etc.). A RoS banner ad typically has certain features. For example, it can appear in the form of a static or interactive image. Also, some marketers use animation to make them more fancy and attention-grabbing.
As you can understand, the form matters immensely, so does the position of the RoS banner. Depending on where it appears—top, middle, bottom, or side—positioning can widely affect your CTR. If you want your eLearning banner ads to be successful, brace yourself for a lot of trial and error tests. But, when you find the goose with the golden eggs, you'll see first hand that it was worth it!
Similarly, there are different types of popup banners as well. For instance, you can activate click-popups when a visitor clicks on a specific link, image, or word. Meaning, popup banners show up only because of an action that occurs. Thus, you have total control and you can try different approaches. Besides, these popup banners are ideal if you don't want them to be very intrusive.
Then again, you can keep it traditional and opt for intrusive popups that take up a lot of space when a user enters or exits a landing page. Timely popups like these can be very effective depending on the topic and the message. Or, you can use smaller popups in size to get your message across in a more subtle way.
Conclusion
So, let's sum up the primary aspects you should focus on to bring about a well-deserved banner ads campaign victory! First things first, make sure to implement proper targeting. Also, don't be afraid to spend a little more time when creating your text copies.
In fact, why not use multiple copies to test and see which one works best for a specific audience? In addition, because images sometimes speak louder than words, make sure to use a relevant design.
For example, you can experiment with different sizes and ideas. Maybe you'd like to use a more creative approach and share your messaging in ways that make the audience think and imagine. Or perhaps, you want to reach them on an emotional level. Either way, to improvise and get it right, it's essential to be bold!
Finally, don't forget about your CTAs. Choosing the right keywords and adding power words to your ad copy can turn naysayers into your biggest fans! You just have to find the best way that will resonate with them.
It's not only about having a great product or service but about making even people who don't know you understand your value and what you can offer them.
