NONE: Re: Copy for banners
Re: Copy for banners
Bob Schmidt (schmidt_at_magicnet.net)
Thu, 01 Aug 1996 15:29:57 -0400
Tom Hukins writes,
>Effective adverts are not those which have high click through rates,
>although that is often the case. Effective adverts help the web site achieve
>the purpose for which it was created.
>
That is a good point, though it is a standard which could, and should, be
applied to any and all elements of a web site.
So, when looking strictly at the goal of an ad, we can say that in addition
to attracting attention, the purpose of every ad is to persuade and
motivate. Those are the two most basic functions of any ad and the ones
which determine its success. Without them, the ad cannot succeed, and is
likely not even an ad. For instance, those that seek merely to inform,
rather than persuade, are probably in the news business and don't realize
it. Persuasion is a prerequisite in advertising.
How persuasion and motivation are defined can vary, of course. An ad may
seek to persuade the prospect to buy something or believe something. It may
motivate to change behavior such as getting up and going to the store to buy
something, or remembering to pick up something on the next visit to the
store, or call a phone number or click on a banner and visit a web site.
This is known as a call to action, and Click Here, is as good a call to
action as one could want.
But the behavior to be changed can also be changing the way the prospect
thinks about, or perceives, your company, product, or brand name. And so we
cannot rule out banners whose goal is other than a high click through rate.
Share of mind is a sophisticated advertising strategy, but one which is
quite at home on high traffic web pages for brands and market leaders, and
any advertiser who seeks to achieve a high profile in the marketplace.
Banner ads have a role to play in all of these areas, though only one or two
areas at a time will typically be relevant to any particular ad or banner.
Therefore, it is important to know which of these goals you are trying to
accomplish, and which of them your ad creative is trying to accomplish. If
your ad creative is not in synch with your ad strategy, you need to change
the creative, not the strategy. The creative is the most important factor is
achieving persuasion and motivation. But media costs far exceed creative
costs in most ad media. Therefore, it is easier and cheaper to change the
creative.
The creative is also where you achieve the most leverage in your
advertising. Two ads with otherwise outstanding creative for the same
product can pull quite differently in the same medium. This is why testing
is an important part of any advertising effort. And it is why beauty
contests, or what the boss's wife/husband/live-in thinks, are never valid
bases for evaluating ad creative.
Any ad can only bring you the bear. You have to skin him yourself. So, to
that extent, yes, indeed, a high click through rate is the way to evaluate
an ad. IOW, if it achieves a high click through, it has done its job. The
rest of the sale is up to the web site. No one is going to buy something
because a banner ad convinced them. There is not enough space to do an
effective selling job in a banner ad. All you can hope to do is persuade the
prospect to visit your web site, where you have all the room to tell you
complete selling story.
It is doubtful anyone will be able to take an order by the user clicking a
banner ad.
On the other hand, that is not to say that all high click through rates will
help you sell. There must be an appropriate payoff for the user. If you
mislead with say, a photo of a naked woman and you're selling nun's habits,
you might have a high click through rate but never make a sale. But using
teasers in banners is essentially the whole idea. Just make sure you
understand where prospects think your banner ad is leading and make sure
your web site reinforces and goes beyond their expectations.
A banner ad for a web site is best thought of as an ad advertising an ad.
Bob Schmidt
Provider Marketing Group
Orlando Florida
