Revealed: 5 steps to online success

Online advertising has many challenges but a new analysis of what works – and, more importantly what doesn’t – shows exactly what brands need to do to get a decent response.
According to a Rocket Fuel study of the creative supplied for 40,000 banner ads from 1,076 different advertisers served to 23.3 billion impressions over an eight-month period, there are five key steps to success.
So, if your marketing budget stretches – and if you can convince your chief executive – here goes:
First, sign up a male celebrity (that will get you a 670% higher conversion rate than an ads featuring a female celebrity);
Next, polish up your animation skills (6-9 second animations have the highest rate of conversion at 138%);
Include a decent offer (a 98% higher conversion rate than those that don’t);
Add in a splash of red (red backgrounds had a 31% higher conversion rate);
And finally, if you are going to use a logo, make sure you stick it in the lower left corner (an 81% higher conversion rate).
Rocket Fuel’s senior vice-president and managing director of Europe, Dominic Trigg, reckons the report, A Guide to Creative Optimisation, opens up a world of possibilites.
He said: “Some might look at the data and conclude that it over-prescribes creative opportunities. But we think the opposite is true. The data illuminates what has worked well in the past, but it doesn’t limit the discovery of what might work in the future.
“One of the best benefits of programmatic is that it enables affordable and fast real-world testing of literally any idea or hypothesis you can imagine. It opens possibilities – it doesn’t close them.”
To review the full study, visit the Rocket Fuel site by clicking here>