A web banner ad can be a seizure-inducing block of flashing color cluttering up a perfectly good webpage or an excellent vehicle for bringing targeted leads back to your site. To make sure your banner ad is the good kind, here are some nine tiny words.

Seven
Mantle’s number, the lucky number, and the maximum number of words you want to put on your 468×60 banner ad. This not only gives you more room (read: bigger font size = easier to read), but gets your message across in less time.

Time
It’s at a premium. An animated banner ad has THREE SECONDS to grab the viewers’ attention. Don’t overestimate the patience of your audience.

GIF
Get Images Fast. Minimize frustration and build your banner ads as animated GIF files to reduce their loading time. Your colors will be more limited, but your audience won’t have to wait on a website bogged down by a slow-loading banner ad either.

Free!
Amazing! New! Affordable! Power words can immediately communicate a benefit of clicking on your banner ad.

Prize
Step right up! Click on the banner ad and win a prize! Everyone’s a winner! Give people an incentive to visit your site. It could be as simple as a discount or a chance to win.

Ask
Don’t tell you’re customers what they need, ask pointed questions and offer a solution back on your website, only a click away.

Fresh
Banner ads can get stale and moldy too after awhile. Rotate your banner ads or create new ones to keep them fresh and eye-grabbing to viewers.

Brand
No need to stick a red-hot iron to your banner ad; most people assume they already know everything they need to know about the brand and totally ignore the banner ad. Add a little mystery to the relationship (without compromising the truth).

Link
Zelda’s boyfriend, delinquent-turned-Mod-Squad, or your website’s best friend? Link your banner ad to the subject it sells (i.e., a banner ad for washing machines should link to the washing machine section of the home appliance website).

- Tony Darrick Baker & K. L. Russell