A study of effective Web advertising design to maximize click-through and brand awareness

Abstract

<p>Technological developments provide important opportunities to advertisers and marketers can now reach large masses of people more efficiently through a variety of media. Web advertising has become widely known as an efficient and effective communication tool, and it is fast becoming the medium for mass communication in the advertising industry. Despite the Web's capability to be a potentially powerful medium for advertising, few research studies have been conducted regarding the effectiveness of visual communication in Web advertising compared to other advertising media. Generally, there are two main purposes for Web advertising: (a) build a brand, or (b) conduct direct marketing. Brand advertising associates the positive qualities or emotions with a company's product or service, while direct marketing attempts to stimulate a direct sale. Visual design elements need to be formulated that specify exactly which advertising objectives are being targeted. The primary objective of this study was to develop a method to analyze the components of Web design elements and communication styles in banner advertisements to enable Web advertising designers to maximize the effectiveness of Web advertising. The research found that click-through and brand-reinforcement design elements have both a comparative and inverse relationship. The findings demonstrate that a higher level of click-through ad design is associated with lower brand-reinforced ad design. Similarly, a higher level of brand-reinforced design is associated with lower click-through. The researcher presented a typology to be used as guidelines to determine the effectiveness of Web advertising design to maximize click-through and brand-reinforcement. Most studies on Web advertising have been conducted primarily on click-through behavior. Since many demands are based on the importance of brand-reinforcement in Web advertising, this study does provide some groundwork in this field. Therefore, further study in this area is strongly recommended.</p>