How GIF Banner Ads can give you an edge over your competitors

[This post was originally published on 13th July 2020. It has been updated on 12th April 2022.]

Animated GIFs have become an integral part of our lives. They have not only replaced phrases in a chat message but have made communication fun and lively. While we have become so used to GIFs on social media like Facebook and Twitter, they have also been truly dominating digital advertisements for quite some time.

Since the launch in the ’80s, GIFs have developed a lot in their purpose, methods of creation, and dissemination. One such development is their use in web banner advertisements. As banners have become mandatory for businesses, especially for those that mostly deal with online purchases, it is a challenging period for marketers, to stay afloat and to make an impact with experimental media. GIFs are the saviors here.

The best part of an animated GIF advertisement is that it lies in the sweet spot between a video and an image, making it accessible and less heavy than a video. Although there are a few shortcomings of GIFs, we will tell you how to overcome them, how to make an impact, and how to make the most of it in your day to day marketing campaign.

Psychological impact of GIF Banner ads

The main reason why GIF ads are eye-catching and visually rich is that they are moving images. Moreover, they have the potential to represent more content in less space as compared to a static image. Be it a carousel of summer dresses or a montage of must-visit places in Istanbul, GIFs have the capacity to communicate a message more powerfully.

A Giphy user, on an average, spends at least 2 hours a day viewing GIF content. This proves that human beings are inevitably somehow deeply impacted by GIFs.

Coming to GIF advertisements, let’s see how these animated web banner ads impact a website visitor.

Impacts consumer behavior

GIFs attract the consumer and if targeted the right way, often convert prospects into leads. GIFs have the capacity to nudge the consumer to make a purchase decision by incorporating small directional and trigger cues towards the CTA and impact their actions.

Creates a favorable condition for the pitch

Viewing a banner ad quite frequently, subconsciously familiarises the audience with the brand. And when the time comes for the big pitch, they are more likely to convert than a viewer who has not seen your ads before.

Almost 54% of visitors don’t trust a banner ad because they are suspicious of these being a clickbait. But GIFs have the capacity to impact the audience and register the message even if not directly asking for an immediate action. This is precisely why familiarizing the audience with subtle GIF banner ads and gaining their trust, reverses their psychology subconsciously. Create animated banner ads if you want to cut through the noise and stand out from your competitors.

Overcoming banner blindness with GIFs

Just like how you are interested in making the most of your banner ads, there are thousands of others out there who are probably a few steps behind or ahead of you. With so much banner content in the market, an audience will mostly not pay attention to your ad, especially if it’s static. GIFs have the upper hand here as they stand out, and are probably the only solution to banner blindness.

How to incorporate GIF Banner ads into your marketing

Size matters

Banner advertisements come in all sizes as there is no one-size-fits-all formula for animated GIF advertisements. The basic banner sizes are as follows:

Apart from being affordable and effective, GIFs are easily embedded in all marketing platforms. Be it Facebook, Twitter or Emails, you see banner ads every day. But the ones that you actually look at would mostly be in the GIF format. As far as the file size is concerned, the smaller the file, the better. Create animated GIF banner with file size not more than 150kb.

Let the visuals do the talking

As GIF banners are small in size and have to maintain a balance between text and GIF, it is always better to keep the text as less as possible and turn up the visual language. As long as the right message is delivered through the information provided on the banner, keep your text minimal when you create animated banner ads.

One thing that should be taken into consideration while designing an animated GIF advertisement be it selecting the color palette or conceptualizing the copy, is the demography and culture of the target audience. With the help of that, your banner ads would be more relevant and personalized.

Minimal Copy, experimental  typography

When it comes to the copy of the banner, always keep the word limit less than 10 because banners have comparatively lesser space and you cannot be generous with the copy. However, you can experiment with modern typography which grabs the attention of the viewer. With animated GIF banner ads, you can jazz up boring typography with visual effects.

Summoning the action

With animated GIF ads, the main purpose is to make the viewer click on the Call to Action. GIFs can be used to highlight the CTA button or the text in the CTA. Such inclusion of rich media and experimental developments is what makes this industry ever-evolving and fast-moving.

Ready, Set, Optimize

Banners can be positioned around the optimized regions on a website and are categorized into leaderboards, traditional banners (336×280), and Facebook ads like the news-feed ads and right-hand side ads. 

Please note that for all of these banners, the size will vary. You must create animated GIF banner with minimal text and optimized for smooth rendering so that it looks good on desktops as well as mobile devices.

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Brand recall

No matter how important the text or image is, incorporate a brand recall element in your animated GIF banner ads. Be it the logo or the color palette or any other unique element that reflects your brand. As long as you do this religiously, you will not only make a psychological impact on your audience but also have a head start in brand consistency when compared to your marketing peers.

5 ways to use GIFs in banner ads

Image carousel/slides

Carousels or slides are a great way to incorporate product varieties or a handful of information in a rather small space. Take a look at these animated banner ads:

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Animated Image

Using an animated image or an illustration will create a subtle movement and grab the audience’s attention towards your ad. Take a look at the following animated GIF ads.

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Animated CTA

Using a GIF as the CTA is one of the smartest ways to incorporate animation to banner ads. Your CTA not only gains attention but also becomes more clickable. Check out the following GIF banner examples and the animated CTA included in the design:

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Animated text

Due to space constraints, the text is kept to minimal in GIF banner ads. Therefore, adding animation or effects to the typography in animated banner ads will draw the audience to the information.

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Cinemagraph

To put in simple words, cinemagraphs loop the GIF banner ad in such a way that the first and the last frame are in sync, and this creates a continuous loop, which makes the animation so smooth that it looks like a video. Here are two GIF banner ad examples with cinemagraphs:

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Wrap Up

These are a few of the awesome ways in which one can incorporate animated banner ads in their marketing campaigns. We hope this information will not just help you gain a better perspective on animated GIF ads but also help you to efficiently incorporate these techniques into your campaign.

Helpful FAQs

Q) Do you create HTML5 banners?

A) Yes, we do create HTML 5 banners. Our team of experts also crafts engaging static and GIF display banners from scratch. The quickest TAT is 2-3 days. We have designed banners for Google Display Ads, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google Ads, Yahoo Network, AdRoll, BuySellAds, and other popular marketing platforms. Our team focuses on catering to you with unique designs and high converting banners compatible with major ad campaigns. 

Q) What is the TAT for animated GIF banners and static banner ads? Is it different?

A) Yes, the TAT for these types of banners will be different. We take a minimum of 2 – 3 days to create animated GIF banner ads and 1 – 2 days for static banners.

Q) Can you convert a static banner design into an animated banner?

A) Yes, we can convert your static banner design into a stunning animated banner. Just share your design files with us and we will take it forward.

Q) Can I see some samples of banner ads created by Email Uplers?

A) Yes, we have created banners of all kinds – static, GIF, and HTML – catering to different industries like fashion, education, music, business, etc. You can visit our official banner design service page to view these banners.

Q) How much does your banner design service cost?

A)  Our professional banner design service starts at $29. All you have to do is choose whether you want a static, GIF, or HTML5 banner, share your design brief and other details like quantity, adaption, and platforms to market on, and we will take it ahead from there. Feel free to share your banner requirement here.