What is a banner? Standard sizes of banners and tips for creating impressive banner designs.

Banner, an indispensable part of communication campaigns, plays a role in attracting the attention of target customers while conveying messages in a consistent and effective manner. However, to create a successful banner, you need to understand and adhere to some important principles. FPT Shop will present these specific principles in the following article. Join us and discover.

What is a banner? The origin of the banner

A banner is a term used to refer to outdoor signs, website banners, or social media pages. It is seen as a communication medium that helps to convey messages about products, services, or events with the purpose of attracting people’s attention. From there, it stimulates and creates a demand for use.

The banner first appeared on 10/27/1994 in Wired magazine. To create a proper banner, you need to harmonize multiple elements including size, color, content, image, logo, brand name, etc.

What is the purpose of using a banner?

There are many types of banners, each type serving different purposes, such as:

• Badge banner: This type of banner appears in the form of circular, square, or rectangular badges.
• Organization, union banner: This type of banner is used in unions, often featuring the union logo. Union banners are used to convey messages or programs related to the rights and obligations of labor.
• Sports banner: This type of banner is used in sports activities. Sports banners usually include complete information such as logos, names, aliases, slogans, team colors… Most sports banners are brought by fans, hung in the stands to cheer for their favorite team.
• Advertising banner: This type of banner is used for communication and advertising specific products or services to increase attractiveness and make an impression on users.

The importance of a banner in marketing

• Provide potential customer contacts: A banner is an excellent marketing tool that helps businesses identify target customers who are interested in their products or services. From there, they can proactively contact and explore potential customer data.
• Highlight new products/services: During promotional periods or product/service launch, businesses use banners to increase attention and reach more users.
• Persuade customers: Well-designed banners with concise and understandable messages and attractive images will create good communication effects and be persuasive to customers.
• Enhance brand recognition: Banners usually contain logos, brand names, and other elements related to brand identification. Thanks to this, businesses can easily increase brand recognition and develop their business model.

Standard sizes for different types of banners

Newspaper, magazine banner

This type of banner is displayed in newspapers or magazines. Its size is quite diverse and depends on the layout of the publication and the regulations of each editor. Generally, the optimal size for a banner is the width equal to the width of the content.

Street banner

Street banners are located outdoors, places where people can easily see them while walking. These banners usually have standard sizes of 1 x 4 meters or 0.8 x 3 meters (horizontal) and 0.6 x 1.6 meters or 0.8 x 1.8 meters or 0.8 x 2 meters (vertical). Street banners need to be designed beautifully and attractively at first glance.

Online banners

These are the banners used on websites, social media, or online newspapers. Online banners are currently widely used and bring high effectiveness. Their sizes vary depending on the different channels. For example:

• Website banner size: 728 x 90 px (Leader board position), 300 x 100 px and 300 x 250 px (two-column website)… Optimize the size and file size of the banner to avoid slow-loading pages and save users time.
• Social media banner: For banners running advertisements on Facebook, the size is 1280 x 682 px. For banners running on Instagram, the size is 1200 x 1200 px.

Steps to design a standard banner

Step 1: Identify the target customer and their shopping behavior

This is a must-do step before designing a banner. Only when you accurately identify the target customer and their shopping behavior can you effectively deploy suitable messages, images, and colors.

Step 2: Determine the online channel to place the banner

There are many online channels for you to choose and place your banners. Each channel has different display sizes, so you need to determine the desired channel to design a beautiful and impressive banner.

Step 3: Determine the message you want to convey

A banner is a tool to convey messages, so to attract customer interest, the message on the banner needs to be concise, clear, understandable, and interesting. This step is important for increasing the conversion rate to orders for businesses.

Step 4: Design the layout and advertising banner

If the message influences customer action, the layout determines whether customers read the message or not. A banner with a cluttered and unremarkable design is difficult to persuade the viewer to read the message. Therefore, focus on the layout and design style to increase appeal to viewers.

Step 5: Insert a Call To Action (CTA) button

CTA is a mandatory element in a banner. To create a CTA, you don’t need to follow any standards because the purpose of this button is to stimulate customers to take immediate action.

Step 6: Check, edit, and test

To determine if a banner is effective or not, you need to constantly check, edit, and test it. This will provide comparisons and overall evaluations when creating advertising banners.

Tips for designing impressive banners

Understand the different sizes

The size of a banner determines the success or failure of a communication campaign. You need to understand the standardized sizes of each online and offline channel in order to create an attractive banner with good display capabilities.

Follow the 3B rule

The 3B rule consists of Brand – Buzz – Badge, which includes:

• Brand: add the brand’s logo so that viewers can identify who created the banner.
• Buzz: create a buzz, an effective banner needs to create a buzz for the target audience.
• Badge: means continuous appearance. Combined with the CTA button, this can enhance communication effects and conversion rates.

Concise content

The content on a banner needs to be simple, concise, and memorable. According to the principle, the message on the banner must fit into 4 lines. The main and secondary contents are emphasized with font size. Avoid using curly, flowery fonts or using too many capital letters as they will make viewers feel confused and overwhelmed.

Symmetrical colors

The colors displayed on the banner can directly impact the emotions and moods of viewers. Make sure you have chosen the right color to highlight the personality and the intended brand messages.

Consider dynamic ads

According to statistics, most dynamic banners attract viewers better than static banners. Furthermore, it also shows the meticulous investment and enthusiasm of the brand. This will give customers a reason to continue supporting and create a high favorable impression.

Use high-quality images

Image quality is always a concern for many people. Through sharp and realistic images on the banner, customers can evaluate whether you are really serious about your product advertising strategy or not.

Have a clear focal point

A banner needs to have a clear focal point to make it easy for anyone to see the message even when they quickly scroll through. You can use contrasting images, highlight important texts, or increase the size of the subject… Only when you make viewers interested in one point on the banner can you get their attention to the overall content.

Choose suitable printing formats and materials

Before printing, check and make sure your banner has the correct spelling and formatting. Choosing high-quality printing materials will help display images and colors on the banner fully and also reaffirm to customers that your brand truly cares about this product promotion campaign.

Conclusion

Above are the pieces of information that help you understand the concept of what a banner is, as well as its importance in advertising and communication. In summary, a banner is not just a tool to convey messages, but also creates special value in the minds of customers.