@Bannersnack – the easy way for banner maker and display advertising

Bannersnack is an online app dedicated to created banners, launched in 2008 and that, over time, reached to over 2M users and over 2,000 banners created every day. Currently, Bannersnack runs a campaign targeting agencies , offering them access to a special master account through which their teams can manage and create banners and online advertising campaigns for their clients.

AdHugger challenged Bannersnack to a questions and answers session and the result is below. Robert Katai – Visual Marketer & Brand Evangelist – answered to us on behalf of Bannersnack.

Q. Who is Bannersnack, where did it start and where is it now?

A. Bannersnack is an online app designed especially for creating banners. It went online in 2008 and right how it has over 2 million users and over 2000+ banners are created each day. Starting with last year, you can also start online advertising campaigns directly, no download or upload. You can run both targeting, site retargeting and search retargeting campaigns with standard web and Facebook ads. In October, we also launched Bannersnack for agencies for freelances and agencies that manage ads for their clients

Q. Who are the people that made it possible and what was the insight used to develop Bannersnack?

A. We got the idea for Bannersnack from one of our previous projects, FlashEff. FlashEff is probably the best selling Flash component ever and it helped users create Flash animations without having to know how to code and it was used mostly for banner ads at that time. That was even the tagline for it: “Art without coding”. However, FlashEff could be used only with Flash and it required download and installing. We wanted more people to be able to create professional, high-quality banner ads, without having to download and install. That’s how we built Bannersnack.

Q. You service global clients. How was at the start? What made / helped you go global? How did you enter Snacktools family?

A. We went international with FlashEff as well so it made sense to launch Bannersnack internationally as well. We already had experience with it, so it seemed the natural step. We didn’t actually enter the SnackTools family, we started the SnackTools family with Bannersnack and we created the rest of the apps afterwards. Right after Bannersnack, we launched Photosnack, TubeSnack, Podsnack and so on.

Q. What do you offer to advertising agencies / advertising departments from clients and how does your offer differ on the market?  

A. Advertising agencies can request a Bannersnack for agencies account. That offers them the possibility to add multiple clients and managers to their account to create and manage banner ads and display advertising campaigns for their clients. We also provide access to high-performing advertising campaign types such as search retargeting and professional campaign management. Moreover, until January 31st, all eligible requests will receive a BannerPro license for the entire company for a whole year. More details on Bannersnack for agencies are available here

Q. Some say banner is dead. What is your answer to that and how do you think banners will evolve in the near future?

A. The display advertising spend is growing year after year: display ad spend went from $42.2BN in 2013 to $51.8 BN in 2014. The projected display ad spend for 2015 is $63.2BN. Moreover, retargeting is currently one of the most efficient types of online advertising – on average $10 ROI for every dollar invested. With those numbers, the banner ad is certainly not dead. A lot of people don’t like it, but it’s the standard for display advertising online and it might take some time for it to be replaced.

Q. How many customers you have? Who are your clients? Can you name some of the international companies using your services?

A. Right now, Bannersnack has over 2 million users and over 2,000 banners are created each day. Our clients are mostly designers, art directors, marketers and small business owners and the biggest ones are listed on our homepage.

Q. What was the budget invested in developing the service? What are the areas in which you will continue to invest in the future?

A. There isn’t an added up number or a big sum, but most of our budget went into development and it’s an ongoing process. There are always improvements that we want to bring into the app and we  That’s one of the main areas that we’ll be heavily investing in in the future as well.

Q. How can you make your own banner with Bannersnack? What are the technical requirements for the ads to run properly?

A. All you need to do is start using the banner maker (requires a log in, but you can quickly log in even with your Facebook account). Drag and drop fonts, images, clip arts and save when you’re ready. If you have multiple slides, interactions or animations on your banner, you will need to use Flash to be able to view it properly. If you’re using your banners with embed codes, the embed code will automatically detect mobile devices and the HTML version of the banner will load. As a general rule of thumb, even if you’re creating animated banners or static, keep your banners under 40KB to make loading faster

Q. And because it’s all about the money, how much does it cost to use Bannersnack’s services?

A. That depends on what you want to do with your banners. If you want to download them or use the banners with embed codes on other websites, you will need to purchase a premium plan which starts at $32/month (you can find all the details here). If you want to advertise online with Bannersnack, you can use the banners you have created without the watermark for free and you only need to pay the campaign budget.