Employ contrasting colors and imagery appropriate for the target audience. Movement and oddities can appeal to human instincts. Test banner designs extensively through split testing variations in layout, headlines, body copy, images, and calls to action to identify the highest performing elements. Reserve traffic for ongoing testing of additional ideas like challenges, questions, or shock style approaches.

1. Banner design tips:
employ contrast tactics
-use contrasting colors
be appropriate:
age appropriate
-people displayed in your ad, families, etc.
gender appropriate
-females for female targeted ads?
-female colors, purple, pink, etc.
-stronger colors, blue, red, for men and male images
geographically appropriate
-call someone out on their location
-build dynamic ads that change based on geo location
appeal to human survival instincts
-movement eg. animations, moving arrows
-oddities
red: brings stuff to the foreground, accents things on your site, good for calls to action
orange: combines red with happiness of yellow, stimulates mental activity; typically
perceived as low cost or affordable
yellow: for warning signs, use it to highlight things; perceived as childish by men, so
don't use it for expensive men's items
green: symbolizes growth, harmony and safety; dark green is associated with money
and is the most restful eye color; use to indicate safety for medical products
CTR: 0.1% CTR is a standard, "average" to shoot for, but don't stop there!
SPLIT TESTING: do it.
steps:
1. create 4 sets of banners that are very different from each other in layout/design,
identify the winner
2. using the winning layout/design, test 4 or more different headlines, identify the winner
3. using the winning headline, test different body copy variations, identify the winner
4. using the winning copy variation, test multiple "hero shots" (ie. images within the
banner), identify the winner
5. using the winning hero shot, test multiple calls to action (eg. click here, free trial, get it
now, get the power, unleash the power…), identify the winner
6. this yields a "super ad," but don't stop testing: reserve 10% of your traffic for testing
testing ideas:
gives a challenge or asks a question, uses a "wanted" headline, news style, before and
after, baby photos, introducing…, shock and awe style, white space + text