5 Design Tools for Creating Eye-Catching Banners for Online Ads

Discover the cutting-edge 5 design tools revolutionizing online ad banners, as revealed by industry pioneers. These insights, distilled from extensive expert experience, unveil functionalities that foster team collaboration and user-friendly design. Navigate the landscape of digital creativity with the guidance of those who have mastered the art of impactful online visuals.

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Photoshop Supports Team Collaboration

When it comes to banner ads, my team uses Photoshop more than any other design tool. We use an internal template with smart objects sized for standard digital ad sizes, which allows us to view all of the ads together while also working on them individually. The styles and assets in our Creative Cloud libraries that we use in Photoshop are shared across our team, making it easy for multiple designers to work on them.

A few best practices we follow for most banner ads are including imagery along with text, keeping text minimal, maintaining color contrast and minimum text size standards for legibility, avoiding backgrounds that are too light and will blend in with site content, and avoiding flashing or imagery that reads as sales-oriented or an error. Photoshop supports all of these practices, as well as the ability to export images as optimized file sizes so load times are faster.

Claire Escobedo, Design Director, Online Optimism

Canva Offers User-Friendly Design Features

The design tool I use most often to create eye-catching banners for online ads is Canva. I prefer Canva because it’s incredibly user-friendly and provides a wide array of templates, fonts, and elements that make it easy to craft professional-looking ads quickly.

As a digital marketer managing several campaigns at once, time is always of the essence, and Canva allows me to produce high-quality designs without needing advanced design skills or software like Adobe Photoshop.

One of the things I love about Canva is the drag-and-drop functionality, which makes it easy to customize pre-built templates. For a recent Facebook Ads campaign, I needed to create several banner variations for A/B testing.

Using Canva, I was able to quickly design different layouts and test various messaging, calls to action, and color schemes. The built-in design tools allowed me to adjust the visuals to fit the client’s brand identity, ensuring the banners were both visually appealing and aligned with their overall marketing strategy.

Canva also offers a wealth of resources like stock photos, icons, and illustrations, which I can easily incorporate into my designs. This saves me a lot of time because I don’t have to search for assets elsewhere. The custom size options in Canva also make it easy to design banners for various platforms, whether it’s Facebook, Google Display Network, or Instagram, ensuring that the banners are optimized for each platform’s specifications.

Another key feature that I appreciate is the ability to collaborate in real-time. Since I often work with a team of designers and copywriters, Canva’s collaboration feature allows us to edit, comment on, and approve designs together. This streamlined collaboration speeds up the design process and ensures that everyone is on the same page.

Overall, Canva has become my go-to tool for designing online ad banners because of its ease of use, versatility, and time-saving features. It provides all the tools I need to create high-quality, engaging banners that convert, without requiring a steep learning curve or expensive design software.

Georgi Petrov, CMO, Entrepreneur, and Content Creator, AIG MARKETER

Figma Enables Real-Time Collaboration

I use Figma to create eye-catching online ad banners. It meets my needs and allows real-time collaboration. Whether I’m working solo or coordinating with a team, its cloud-based platform allows seamless sharing and feedback. This makes it easy to ensure the design aligns with the ad’s objectives and the team’s vision.

Unlike template-based tools, Figma offers complete freedom for custom designs. I love that I can tweak every pixel and use reusable components for consistency across campaigns, which is crucial for building a recognizable brand.

Since I often work on multiple campaigns, Figma’s ability to organize projects in shared spaces and create templates for future use saves me time and keeps things organized. Its adaptability and professional-grade features make it my go-to tool when I want banners that truly stand out while staying on-brand.

Naima Ch, Marketing Head and SEO Specialist, Morse Code Translator

Canva Pro Simplifies Team Training

I love using Canva Pro (the paid version of Canva) for the creatives for my online ads. I think it doesn’t have quite the learning curve that Adobe Photoshop has, which means it’s easy to train team members on. And, I love that I can add-on team members as needed when we need to collaborate on a design for a new online ad. Plus, it lives in the cloud, so I can access it no matter where I’m at.

Shawna Newman, Marketing Director & Agency Owner, Growth Cupid

Pixlr Balances Accessibility and Powerful Features

A design tool I can wholeheartedly recommend for developing striking banners for web-based advertisements is Pixlr. It’s a multipurpose, easy-to-navigate interface that balances accessible design and powerful features, making it an ideal platform for producing polished banner ads in a pinch.

The large collection of templates, fonts, and graphics that Pixlr has makes it possible for you to create nice banners without having to start from zero. Its artificial intelligence-powered tools for background removal and editing are well suited for helping you refine images and isolate the crucial design components that really make a banner “pop.” I also feel that the interface is intuitive enough that even a newbie designer could produce image results that would impress.

Blake Smith, Founder & SEO Consultant, Blake Smith Consulting

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