Web banners are everywhere. They appear in all shapes, sizes and mediums. Creating an online banner advertisement that is distinctly different from competitors', but keeps within company aesthetic, is the primary goal when building this creative platform. Below are a few tips to consider when beginning the design process.

Timing is everything. The Internet, along with social media, is always vastly growing, changing, connecting and improving. Having the mentality that "the sooner I get an ad established the better" is important, however, so is taking the proper amount of time to gather information in regards to your target audience, approach, ad placement/location and expenses. Forming practical goals and deadlines will keep the process moving at a steady pace.

A "call-to-action" is a term used to describe commands such as "Click Here" that suggest the viewer complete a particular task. Terminology such as this is typically coupled with a motion graphic or animation. Execution on such movement is crucial if you choose this route, because the average server will generally move on after 6 seconds if the page is not loading efficiently. Capturing the viewers' attention is necessary, but keeping it is critical.

As another means of engagement, invite your target audience to participate in an activity such as a game, quiz, survey or giveaway. These short activities have been known to increase click-through rates, and often spark the viewer's interest in a subtle and subliminal way.

Keeping your banner relatively small (in regards to bytes, under 15k if possible) will be beneficial in regards to the downloading time, however larger banners have a significantly higher rate of visibility to viewers. How you use this space is crucial, including utilizing an eye-catching color scheme and legible text.

Banner ads are typically the smallest design pieces, so this isn't the time to cram in every piece of information. Editing your content down to the bare essentials is imperative. Usually banners are linked to a website that will provide much more information, so use this to your advantage.

Keeping up with current trends, corporate activity and various updates are important to remember after the completion of an advertisement posting. "Banner burnout" is when response rates drop by half after the second or third time viewers see an ad. One way to avoid constantly recreating banners is to have several versions of one banner placed on various sites. By doing this, the information remains the same, but presentation varies slightly depending on the location. This may also increase the viewers' responses, as they have been exposed to multiple ads and will have a subliminal recognition of your brand.

One of the most important rules is to have fun with your banner ads. Utilize this opportunity to experiment and play around with various design elements. Due to the high frequency of updates, banner ads can be used as a test to see how, what, and why viewers respond in a greater number to one ad versus another. Get creative, and have fun!