Creating an Ad Banner

[WilliamHuntJr]

Thought I'd start this one to let people list how they create the add banners to advertise there comic.

[Pete]

Thought I'd start this one to let people list how they create the add banners to advertise their comic.

Sorry, the Grammar Nazi in me couldn't let that one slip by.  ;-)

I actually  just finished up my first banner in probably a year (I am WAY behind on advertising) and I've never really had a stable process.  So I experimented a bit.  What I did was open a canvas in Photoshop that was much bigger than the size of the banner, that way I could draw things whole and crop them down as needed.  I also decided to let the picture speak for itself, with the name of the comic as the only text.

Brad Guigar posted a rather controversial article on Webcomics.com in its free days, where he talked about what shouldn't be in ads.  The list included URLs, update days, and the descriptor "webcomic".  Having been in advertising, I agreed with him on all points.  I know there will be people who disagree with Brad and myself, and that's fine, but all of the ads I've ever personally clicked on have been devoid of those three things.

If I can, I'll post the ad I was talking about later (I don't have it on my work computer).

[Nuke]

I doodle compulsively, so I have plenty of random art related to my comic lying around. I made a document at normal size, pasted a bunch of the art onto it, messed around until it looked right, and then slapped a logo and a tag phrase onto it.

I'd agree with all of the things Pete said. I don't think the use of the word 'web comic' is really criminal, but it's certainly redundant if you're advertising in the right spot. Keep superfluous text to a minimum. A joke and a simple pitch is fine, but don't say anything that didn't need to be said. The ads on this very site are a pretty good example, actually. "They don't make gods like they used to" and "when he's not out fighting crime with his superpowered cat" are short and interesting.

If you don't have a ton of relevant art just lying around, then composition is obviously a little trickier. You don't really want to hold back on the quality for ad art, so make the document big and resize it down.

[Pete]

Ooo, also, I have to add this while I'm thinking about it.  Don't make your banner ad art 10 times better than your comic's!  On several occasions I've really liked the art on a banner and clicked on it, only to be face-to-face with completely different (or bad) art on the comic itself.  It's annoying.  If you can draw that good, do it for your comic.

[Alectric]

Yes, the "make it big and then resize it" thing I screwed up once, but I'll be sure not to ever again.  What I do is, I basically put my title logo on the ad, then if there's room I add a character or two to make it personable, and then if there's still room I add a tagline or description.  And then I make the background pretty!

I have to disagree with "webcomic" not being a good thing to include.  I find it a good idea to describe just what sort of thing it is you're advertising, and I try to include the word on either the ad itself or the hovertext.  Maybe if you're advertising on another webcomic or forum or collective it should seem obvious that it's a webcomic, but I have seen a number of other things advertised on these sorts of sites, so I think it's worth it to include saying what it is.

And as for having a better ad than your comic, I can understand doing that.  Obviously you don't want it too much better, but you usually have more time to work on a single ad than all of your comics that you have to keep on a schedule.

[Alectric]

Say, does anyone know how to make an animated ad (one that switches between several images)?  Because I honestly have no idea.

[Rob]

Animated Gif's are easy to make with almost any version of Adobe Imageready. If you have a copy of Photoshop chances are you have imageready too. But those animated ads.... that's what they are. Graphic Image Files or GIF's. The image is actually a series of images that load in succession on the page to give the illusion of animation. Usually the code to add the images together as one animated GIF is put together by the program you created them in. Then you just upload the code and you are done.

Maybe someone should do an article on ad creation. If you covered animated GiFs and Flash based ads it could be really informative.

[Funderbunk]

Photoshop CS3 Extended and beyond also have an animation subfunction which you can use to make animated .GIFs, and there are tutorials on how to use it. One you get the hang of it it's quite simple. If you use a basic tutorial you should be able to figure it out within an hour.

As a webcomic reader rather than creator, here's my biggest problem with a lot of webcomic ads:

Don't make an ad or banner of which the spectacular art is FAR, FAR, FAAAAAAR better than the art used in the actual comic. Nothing annoys me more than clicking on a gorgeous ad banner and getting taken to a comic which looks like it was a bunch of doodles in comparison. With me, and probably a lot of others, it leads to an instant 'leave this website' reflex. This is probably not true for everyone, but I have it. It creates expectations which leave the viewer feeling, honestly, a little betrayed and tricked, and gives you an immediate strike against liking you.

[Rob]

Actually I do agree with that sentiment Funderbunk and I believe one of our creators already expressed just that. It can be off putting. Which is why I only use art from my actual comics to advertise them. 

[Funderbunk]

That's probably the best solution to the problem, unless the artist is very consistent (which starting webcomic artists rarely are).

[Dr. BlkKnight]

I also have to agree with the consistent art quality. One particular banner I use I held off on using until I had more pages of my new art style up.