Bad banner ads

Check out the collection of banner ads here and here. These two pages display a collection of banner ads that have proven their CLUNKiness with low click-through rates. That means that few people chose to click on any of these ads.

Looking at them, what do they all have in common?

1. They're all confusing.
2. They're poorly designed.
3. There's no compelling reason to click.

NOTE: All these banner ads come from the Link Exchange, which is not necessarily representative of all banner ads. And although these examples are a little dated, their principles still hold up today.

Good banner ads

From the same LinkExchange pool, here and here are the banner ads that CLICKED. And this is not just my random opinion-- I've got quantitative proof. They all scored big with high click-through rates.

What's common among these winners that you didn't see among the previous examples?

1. The information is clear.
2. They're visually appealing.
3. They offer a "call to action." This helps viewers know that your ad is interactive, and not simply a graphic on a webpage. A call to action usually involves some form of "click here" button.
4. Many offer something for free.

Even though you can't see it in these examples, you'll want to target your ads on pages with appropriate content. But what we do learn from these examples is that you should track your traffic and click-throughs. Given immediate results, you can quickly and easily adapt.