How much time do you spend creating an animated banner ad? Maybe 5 or 10 minutes (if you are a pro designer) or maybe 20 or 30 minutes (if you are a marketer that has been asked to design an animated banner ad).
Most of these animated banner ads are time consuming. You need to watch the tutorials and learn how to design them (if you are a beginner) you need to insert the elements into the rectangle but also give them a good flow and make them stand out on the website’s page.
But have no fear, with Bannersnack you can create your own banner ad.
In this article you will learn what is an animated banner ad, why are they important and how to design it just like a professional.
What is an animated banner ad?
According to Wikipedia animated banner ad (or web banners) is a form of advertising on the internet delivered by an ad server. Their goal is the same as the one for static banner ads: to get noticed on the website and make the user click.
Also, The International Advertising Bureau (IAB) are defining animations as a programmatically generated display of sequential images (or visual elements), creating the illusion that objects in the image are moving.
Back in the day, the flash banner ads had a lot of attention among advertisers, but today, the one in the spotlight is the animated html banner ad. Why? Because of the browsers that chose to stop showing flash banner ads.
Also, in 9th of February, Google announced that their banner ads will go 100% on HTML5.
So, if you want the make the transition from flash banner ad to html5 banner ad I advise you to download this piece of content from IAB and read it from cover to cover.
Static vs Animated?
So, now that you know the definition of animated banner ads, let’s go further and see what is the difference between an animated and a static web banner ad.
The difference between an animated ad banners and a static banner ad is that the animated ads are made up of a series of frames. Every individual display has a time set for each frame and you can measure the time in fractions of a second.
To understand better what the difference between a static banner ad and an animated banner ad is, here is a visual from Quarticon:
For dynamic banners it is the content itself that changes and instead of 4 versions you get a multiplied number (really difficult even estimate) of different banner versions.
But there was a time when animated banner ads were named flash banners and they had their own glory.
In 2013, flash animations were very powerful and you could simply catch the visitors attention and also keeping them on your website.
Today every marketer and designer deals with the same question: should we create animated ads or should we create static ads? And every time I hear this question I answer them with another one: what is your main goal with this banner ad?
There is no wrong or right answer for the animated vs static banner ad question. But you, as a marketer, can always test it, experiment with it and then analyze which one brought you the best results.
The bottom line is that both static and animated display ad can work really great if it’s executed properly. But make sure that you evaluate all the circumstances, such as: campaign’d goal, value proposition, budget, placement and others.
How to design animated banner ads?
If you want to create an animated banner ad you can choose between tools like Photoshop, Flash or Fireworks. But the best way to design them is by using our app. Why? Because it will save you time, money, inspiration and the headache of having to watch tutorials on youtube on how to make them step by step.
You can start with our professionally designed templates or you can start from blank. Trust me, this is the easiest way you can design html5 banners.
Here is a video that will show you how easy you can design this kind of ads:
Great Animated Banner Ad Examples
So, if you are in hurry but you also want to see some insane, interesting and also entertaining animated banner ads, here are a few examples that will inspire you and also make your day.
Because you, as a marketer, small business owner or designer need a rest.
Stride
What if you could create an animated banner ad where people would engage for almost 67 minutes with? Well, if you think it’s impossible, I dare you to watch this video from Stride and see how they interact with the internet user:
Cadbury
Every important moment is a celebration moment, so why not celebrate it with an interactive animated banner ad? Cadbury wanted to say a big thank you to the 1 million people who have liked the Cadbury Daily Milk on Facebook. They created a giant chocolate thumbs up, built live over a 2 day video stream
Nissan
The guys behind this campaign thought that the idea match the home you wanted to buy, with its budget, neighborhood and family size with the right Nissan for you. You could easily get picked up by the Nissan that matches your lifestyle and go for a test drive!
Ikea
Or why not make the most of any space in a banner ad. Just like Ikea has done it in their interactive banner ad where they include a real IKEA shop, with everything inside, into a rectangle. You could easily search for a product and also but it.
Conclusion
There is no doubt that animated banner ads can be a great way to advertise, get some leads, increase sales, increase brand awareness or interact with the user.
But the most important lesson you need is that you never know from the beginning which one is the best for you until you test, experiment and measure it.
Let me know in a comments what you think about animated banner ads.