The banner on the right was made in about 5-10 minutes using BannerSnack, an easy to use online software for creating high quality flash banner ads at an affordable price. Today we’re sharing our thoughts of the service, and explaining who it benefits.
What is Banner Snack?
BannerSnack is a powerful, easy-to-use banner maker that allows nearly anyone to make flash banner ads in no time at all. Unlike similar tools, BannerSnack offers a wide degree of customization and creative freedom rather than overused cookie-cutter templates. Sure, you can start from pre-defined templates, but even they feel like highly customizable creatives instead of bland animations (ie: Google Adwords).
Aside from the quality of the banners you can create with BannerSnack, there are two other things that really set it apart from other software and services.
Affordable
BannerSnack is very affordable. Similar services charge as much as $30 for a single banner, whereas you can create an ad for as low as $9/mo on BannerSnack. That means unlimited creatives in a month for only $9 (though there is a 100MB size limit), for any dimensions you need. It probably goes without saying that it’s cheaper than buying Flash to create your own banners.
You can even use BannerSnack for free, you’ll just see a watermark over your ads.
Quick & Easy
Maybe you already have flash, or you’re concerned about learning how to use new software. BannerSnack is easy to use and there are plenty of tutorials to help you get started. Personally, I didn’t have to use any of the tutorials and I imagine most designers like myself will have no trouble at all picking it up and putting together a banner in a few minutes.
For the non-creative, BannerSnack does offer templates that are easy to work with. You can see some of those templates in action on the Examples page.
Who Should Use It?
If you’re in need of a creative flash banner, and hiring a flash professional to design a banner is out of the question, BannerSnack is probably a good fit for your needs. You may benefit from using it if:
- You’re a website owner who advertises on other websites. You want to ditch the typical bland ads that networks like Google AdWords offer, and start using a unique banner to draw in more conversions.
- You’re a designer with a heavy workload. You don’t have the time to manually create unique banners from scratch in Flash for all of your clients. Instead, you could be using BannerSnack to create very professional banners in no time at all.
- You’re a business owner who is ready to start advertising online. Rather than hiring a design agency and marketing company, cut the costs in half by making the creatives yourself, and sending them directly to marketing with BannerSnack’s .swf output feature.
What We Would Like to See
BannerSnack has some great features that you might not expect from online software: .swf output, advanced effects, plenty of premium fonts, very intuitive interface… but there are a few things that we’d like to see in the future from them:
- Layer Support: Right now, the layers in BannerSnack feel a lot like layers in Powerpoint (Move up, Move down, etc). This may be ideal for the laymen, but for the experienced designer it’s not the best way of getting around.
- Custom Fonts: It would be really fantastic if users could upload their own font to be used in BannerSnack in the future. At this point, custom font needs to be uploaded as an image.
- Undo & Redo: Easy access to an undo and redo button would be a great addition to BannerSnack in the future.
Sign Up For BannerSnack
Interested in BannerSnack? Sign up for one of the following plans below:
- Free Plan (Sign Up): Give BannerSnack a try before committing to it. Banners will have a watermark, and you won’t have access to exclusive premium features.
- Premium Package ( $8.49/mo Sign Up): Watermark free, more storage space, and .swf exports available.
- Premium Plus Package ($12.99/mo Sign Up): Even more storage space, and additional .swf exports available. Comes with advanced effects and fonts to really make this a killer package.
Have you had the chance to give BannerSnack a try yet? What were your thoughts?
About the Author
David Leggett founded Tutorial9 in 2008, and is constantly looking for new ways to serve the web community both online and offline. It is his goal to make Tutorial9 the best source for design/web tutorials and resources.
Free Goodies. Delivered to You.
Subscribe to Tutorial9, and we'll deliver you the newest freebies and tutorials for free.
Subscribe By Email Subscribe By RSSWith the help of these structured lessons, you'll be a master of Photoshop in no time!
Write for Tutorial9
- Do you want to get paid $150 for writing at Tutorial9?
- Are you a talented Photoshopper, Blogger, or Photographer?
- Want to help thousands of others by sharing your knowledge?
If so, we're interested in you, and we'll pay you. Find out how to write for Tutorial9.
129 Comments Leave a Comment
This is super. Thanks a lot David !!!
Although I would usually create my own flash banners from scratch, having BannerSnack would be a a lifesaver for those emergency deadlines or bulk banner needs without too much creative styling.
this is cool If I get this I will use it on my magazine site to help company and people out with ads.
Really cool
Seeing as I don’t know Flash, I would be able to create banners and ads that look attractive which are easy to make instead of dealing with time consuming effects in expensive software.
yep
Hey – I’m all about trying anything to save time. Fl is great, but time consuming. If this can do the job in a fraction of the time and still make quality flash… i’m sold.
I’ve messed a little with flash, but am a full time graphic designer and have no time to learn flash. This would be an awesome tool to help me progress in my online advertising without having to bye flash (a.) and learn it’s programming language.
This sounds pretty cool. I’m working on some ads for my own business right now in Flash and Banner Snack looks faster and easier. I could also use it for some of my clients.
Just awesome !
My firm is getting ready to release a series of mini-sites focused on technology and user experiences. I want to tie them all together with small to medium sized banner ads run over our internal ad server.
Using your product will allow us to produce those ads quickly, cutting down on time to live and costs.
As you can see, I am in the process of fixing our church website where I work. Banner Snack would not only help me but it would help the church. I can not tell you how many times we have talked about using something like this in order to show our series or the photoshop things I have had to create. I am currently using some flash but if I were to have this, it would save me hours of work and those hours could be used for something else. It would be a blessing to have this license. Thanks,
Lane George
Life Church
lgeorge@lifechurchcog.org
Just resist the free things in life
I would use it to create banners for KakoiStyle.com and KidSamurai.com. I have some GIF banners made, but I think this would be just what I need to make even nicer banners. Wish me luck!
BannerSnack looks awesome. I could really use one of the licenses.
That final product looks sharp, David. I would use this product to help promote my network of reptile sites.
since it`s so fast, i can make banners to promote posts before i publish them on my blog, i can make more than 10 banners in banner snack in the same time that i make one using flash, i can make ads while doing other stuff, so i don`t have to put too much effort on it and the result would still be great!!!!
I’m working on a new site and I am in a huge need of banners but I have no clue how to make nice ones. This would be tremendously helpful. Thanks!
This would be a great tool to have when I begin web design work. It looks really fun, too.
I’d love to win!
if lucky enough to win I would use this to add some visual interest to one of my websites.
i want to make banners for my sites
great giveaway
Excellent site you’ve got here.
I would love to start a business creating banners for those that don’t have the time or know-how, winning a licensed version of bannersnack would certainly kick start the dream.
Wow – looks great. I would use it for my portfolio!
This would be an awesome time saver! thanks for the contest!
Love to has it.
/cross fingers
Love the site.. Keep up the awesome work!
*not kissing @$$*
Awesome. Would love to win!
I want it! please…
Looks very good – easy and powerful.
Hello. nice post.
I want it!