Banners

Banners allow you to display custom content upon searching for specific terms. This is great for promoting certain information to the users to make sure they see it. Typical scenarios for setting up banners are current information, upcoming events, promotions, or general information such as opening hours. Banners also serve as a great tool when you want to suggest an external link to the user, which is otherwise not present among the search results.

A banner can be configured to display based on one or more specific search terms, and it is also possible to configure a schedule for the banner (start and/or end date).

Banners are engine-specific and can have one or more search terms assigned to them.

Example

When searching for “Pixel”, show a banner promoting a special discount on all Google Pixel phones. As the promotion ends at the end of the month, an end date is defined to prevent the banner from showing after the discount has expired.

It is possible to insert images, play animated GIFs, and embed videos from streaming services, like Youtube or Vimeo. All resources must be hosted externally and publicly, as it is not possible to upload a file.

If a search term triggers more than one banner, the engine will list the banners by their creation date, with the oldest banner appearing first.

How to set up a banner

1. In the navigation, go to Tools › Banners
2. Ensure the correct engine is selected from the dropdown at the top right of the screen
3. Click the New button at the top of the list
4. Fill out a name for the banner in the Name field. This is only for your own reference and will appear in your MyCludo banner overview
5. Enter at least one search term, each added by clicking the plus icon. Triggering terms are not separated by comma, but added individually using this plus icon. Remember that you can make use of special syntax to cover abbreviations or certain patterns.
6. Use the visual content editor to create the content for the banner. Clicking the code icon (<>) in the menu allows for HTML editing
7. Optional: Add a start and/or end date for the banner from the From and To fields
8. Optional: Add a target audience in order to only display the banner to certain visitors (requires the Audience feature)
9. Click Save

Best practice for banners

Banners allow for custom content to be shown when specific search terms are used. Before setting up a banner, it is recommended to consider the use case for it and which search terms it should be triggered by.

What to consider before setting up a banner

Banners are a great way to promote more current information, such as seasonal content, current or upcoming events, or promotions – but they also serve as a great tool when it comes to making more general information, such as contact info or opening hours, more visible to the visitors.

Banners can easily be deleted or deactivated, and it is also possible to set a start and end date for a banner to control when it should appear.

Banners can be utilized with the Audiences feature to further limit which visitors are allowed to see a certain banner. This allows for showing the banners based on a visitor’s past history as well as their current search.

Search term syntax

When defining a search term for a banner, it is possible to use special syntax to make the triggering search terms more effective. 3 special characters are supported, which can be used in combination if needed.

Wildcard (*)

Depending on the placement, the asterisk (*) symbol will match any alphanumeric string of any length.

Examples

*permit would match any search term that ends with the word “permit”, such as “building permit”.

accessibility* would match any search term that starts with the word “accessibility”, such as “accessibility compliance”.

*contact* would match any search term that contains the word “contact”, such as “how to contact the company”.

Question mark (?)

A question mark will match any alphanumeric character (numbers or letters).

Examples

???? would match any search term with exactly 4 letters or numbers, such as “ab12”, “1234”, “cats” ect.

happy ???? would match any search term with the word “happy” followed by 4 letters or numbers, such as “happy days”, “happy dogs”, “happy 1234” etc.

The question mark, potentially in combination with the pound key (#), is especially useful when we know the length of the search term, but not the content, e.g. for support case IDs or product IDs.

Pound (#)

The pound character will match any number.

Examples

#### would match any series of exactly 4 numbers, such as, “1234”.

###-###-#### would match common American phone numbers like “202-555-0109″.

The pound key, potentially in combination with the question mark (?), is especially useful when we know the length of the search term, but not the content, e.g. for support case IDs or product IDs.

Style banner colors

To customize the banner colors on your search results page, add the following to the cludoSettings object in your script:

themeBannerColor: {textColor: '#HEX', backgroundColor: '#HEX'},

Replace ‘#HEX’ with the desired color codes for the text and background.