Beware! It’s coming! It’s there. 

The moment we click on our Internet browser a goblin-like creature pops up and a sharp pain triggers our brain. In marketing and advertising terms, these goblins are known as ‘Pop-ups'. Every day Internet users are bombarded with hundreds of these flashing dancing pop-on making the consumers and users frustrated and irritated. By dumping these visually over stimulated flashy ads, marketers waste billions of dollars with zero or minimal results. So before investing a mammoth amount of dollars in the advertisement, think first about what is your ‘Target' what you want to accomplish. 

Try to differentiate between good effective ads versus lousy useless ads that give no results. It’s a consumers’ market there. Today, consumers are savvy and will not buy whatever marketers try to throw at them. Consumers want to have control over their buying decision, not the seller anymore. They are in the driver’s seat now.

So what makes good ‘Display’ ads versus bad ones? Banner ads, Skyscrapers, and Pop-ins are viewed as good display ads and viewed positively by the consumers. However, because of the limitation of space marketers have to be innovative and show their expertise to capitalize on maximum returns from these ads despite the limitation of space. They must be innovative and smart to catch consumers’ attention through these ads. 

• Always, start with the basics.

• Keep the message and ads simple, concise and clear. 

• Don’t let your ads make consumers irate bewildered. 

• You don’t want consumers to avoid and zip through your ads in despair and disappointment. 

You want to attract and engage them to click on your ad as much as possible. Therefore your ad has to be catchy and interesting. Always keep as much ‘white space’’ as possible on your web page. 

• Avoid dumping too much information, pictures, animation, and banners cluttering the webpage. This might cause ‘Banner Blindness,’ where consumers ignore and avoid banner ads. This is because the human brain prefers openness and avoids clumsiness. 

• Colors play a vital role in creating effective eye-catching ads.  Bold color contrasts and distinguishing between an image in the foreground and the background can create a dramatic outcome.

• Use standard size readable fonts and enough space between the lines so that it's easy for the eyes to read.

Brand reinforcement is crucial for any brand or product. The human brain constantly processes and screens our information in millions of seconds. Our short-term memory does not retain everything it is exposed to but only those that leave a mark or connotation.  

• The message should be repeated on and on

• The logo should be prominent enough to create a distinction in the consumer's mind. 

• Sometimes the only visual effect is not enough to grab viewers’ attention. A combination of sight and audio i.e. a jingle or tune is a smart way to make the brain remember your message. 

Location, location, location!! It is the key for any business to thrive. The same rule applies to Internet ads as well. 

• Proper placement of display ads, can increase traffic and encourage consumers’ interest and reading an advertisement.

• Engaging people through Interactive advertisement is also a smart technique to increase consumers’ attention. 

• Recall an advertisement if marketers can use it properly. For example, Burger King uses Interactive Ads where the King’s face transforms into the user's face by using a webcam.

The home page is the most important page of the entire website. It generally receives the most traffic and by utilizing the techniques of contextual advertising placing ads on other websites of relevant businesses can generate a more targeted audience. 

• Avoid unnecessary large pictures on your home page. This is because web crawlers only detect keywords, not pictures. 

• Marketers should be vigilant that all the links of the webpage are working properly and ensure the links are taking the user to the right landing page.

• One of the pet peeves of any user is a broken link. It is very frustrating and users can easily lose interest in your product and can be quick to turn away from an ad if it is intrusive or disruptive. 

• A good homepage should have well-constructed and properly analyzed keywords. 

• Navigation trails and page links should be well synchronized and easy to locate by the users.

A well-constructed website should have a combination of both “Search and Display” ads. This is because consumers use the web either for specific search or browsing purposes.  

• Display ads are more of a “push” strategy, whereas search ads are “pull”. Meaning with search ads, consumers pull the information they need, versus display ads, where advertisers push their products toward the consumer. 

• Last but not least, appropriate measures must be taken to monitor the advertisement's effectiveness. Therefore, appropriate performance tracking measures, like Google Analytics, need to be used to measure the effectiveness of a campaign.

Therefore a well-constructed design with successful execution and the proper placement of ads, and zero distraction can draw targeted consumers’ attention and spark interest in your products and services.  When appropriate design and execution are deployed and the correct placement of an ad, this generally will spark consumer interest. 

A good display ad will create brand awareness and generate brand recognition among the target audience. Remember, the more a consumer spends time navigating the site, the higher the probability of closing a successful sale.