Display advertising has the potential to outperform text ads if you know how to harness that potential. It’s a form of direct marketing, so your messaging and your work need to be spot on. Testing and execution are keys in this equation, so you need to be able to produce ads that will perform quickly. Learning these essential tips is sure to help your performance metrics improve.

Copy is Key

When you are working with banners, copy is more than just the words. You have to consider the colors and images on your banner, as well as the space your banner will occupy. Make sure what you and your ad exchange’s preferred sizes are, and that you work within those constraints. It helps to write from a place of knowledge, so perform some quick competitive research on Google to determine which tag lines are working. The closer you get to find that pain point, the better your conversion rate will become.

Outsource Work

Don’t be afraid to outsource the technical aspects of your work to someone more knowledgeable than you. You can easily find a developer to design a landing page for your campaign within a budget of a few hundred dollars. If you can host your own banner advertising, you can capture more data about your target market.

Hiring designers and developers takes time, and you should be prepared to check a few sources to find the work you need. Keep your project simple, and limit yourself to only a few assets. The less you have to work with, the better for your long term efforts.

Bio: For over ten years, Ted Dhanik has used display advertising to boost sales for businesses of all sizes. Ted Dhanik is the co-founder of engage:BDR, and a mentor at the startup accelerator Start Engine. Ted Dhanik also publishes advice to Ad Age and Venture Beat.