Banner Advertising

What is Banner Advertising?

Banner advertising are the small rectangular advertisements appear on all sorts of Web pages and vary considerably in appearance and subject matter, but they all share a basic function: “if you click on them, your Internet browser will take you to the advertiser’s Web site.”

A bit of HTML code instructs a Web server to bring up a particular Web page when a user clicks on a certain piece of text. Banner ads are essentially the same thing, except that instead of text, the link is displayed as a box containing graphics (usually with textual elements) and sometimes animation.

Because of its graphic element, a banner ad is somewhat similar to a traditional ad you would see in a printed publication such as a newspaper or magazine, but it has the added ability to bring a potential customer directly to the advertiser’s Web site. This is something like touching a printed ad and being immediately teleported to the advertiser’s store! A banner ad also differs from a print ad in its dynamic capability. It stays in one place on a page, like a magazine ad, but it can present multiple images, include animation and change appearance in a number of other ways.

Types of Banner Ads

Like print ads, banner ads come in a variety of shapes and sizes. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) specifies eight different banner sizes, according to pixel dimensions. A pixel is the smallest unit of color used to make up images on a computer or television screen. The IAB’s standard banner sizes are:

1. 480 X 60 Pixels (Full Banner)

2. 392 X 72 Pixels (Full Banner with vertical navigation Bar)

3. 234 X 60 Pixels (Half Banner)

4. 120 X 240 Pixels (Vertical Banner)

5. 125 X 125 Pixels (Square button)

6. 125 X 90 Pixels (Button 1)

7. 125 X 60 Pixels (Button 2)

8. 88 X 31 Pixels (Micro Button)

The full banner (468 x 60) is by far the most popular, but you will see all these variations all over the Web. These are not the only banner ad shapes and sizes, either, but they are a good representation of the range of common banner ads. There is no universal file-size constraint for banner ads, but most Web sites impose their own limits on memory size, usually something like 12K to 16K. This is because banner ads add to the total file size of the page they appear on; therefore increasing the time it takes for a browser to load that page.

As you’ve probably noticed while surfing the Web, actual graphic content, or creative, varies considerably among banner ads. The simplest banner ads feature only one, static GIF or JPEG image, which is linked to the advertiser’s home page. More common is the GIF-animated banner ad, which displays several different images in succession, sometimes to create the effect of animated motion. Then there are rich media banner ads — ads that use audio, video, or Java and Shockwave programming. These banner ads, which usually have larger file sizes, are often interactive beyond their simple linking function.

How to implement Banner Advertising:

The designing of a simple banner ad is not so difficult. For example to create an image for advertising the code looks like this:

Text to be displayed

In short same as a simple hyperlink creation. Also the animated GIF banner ads aren’t much more complicated. We can also use a high quality media ad. We can use professional help for designing ads for us. Now we can get a professional banner ad for $50 or you can spend upwards of $1,000.

To make our banner ad more effective, we can also use the some of following methods:

Post banner ads on pages with related Web content — the more related, the better

Advertise a particular product or service in your banner, rather than your site generally

If you do advertise a particular product or service, link the banner ad to that part of your Web site, rather than your home page

Put banner ads at the top of the page, rather than farther down

Use simple messages rather than complicated ones

Use animated ads rather than static ones

Your graphic content should pique visitor curiosity, without being too obscure

Keep banner ad size small
If the page takes too long to load, a lot of visitors will go on to another page
One can also use the following ten tips to make an ad more effective:

1. Study the best examples online. When designing a creative piece like a banner ad, start by identifying the best banner ads that you have seen.

2. Be clear in your graphics and messaging. Your main objective is to have people take a particular action after viewing your ad. A strong, clear message will help capture their interest. Clear communication requires that you understand your message, what you are selling and the benefit that you are offering potential customers.

3. Control the file size. To minimize user frustration, you need to limit the file size of your ad. As a general rule a 468 x 60 pixel banner should be 12 kilobytes or less. The easiest way to achieve this is to limit the number of colors you use and save your banner as an animated GIF file.

4. Say it in seven words or less. This is especially important for a banner campaign, where you are limited to a small visual space. Using fewer words means that you can make the font size bigger, which increases the impact of your message.

5. Use power words. These are single words that immediately communicate a benefit. “Free,” “unbelievable,” “incredible,” “affordable,” “heartwarming” — a brainstorming session will help you create a list of words that are perfect for your campaign.

6. Select images carefully. Adding visuals is like cooking with spices. Too few will lead to a bland banner, while too many will destroy the desired effect. If you want to add an eye-catching graphic, royalty free stock photography is an inexpensive option.

7. Use contrast to capture attention. Your ad will likely include these elements: background colors, a bold text message, and a photograph or drawing, and animated. To be effective you need to have contrast between these elements. Contrast can be achieved using different font sizes and bolds and colors.

8. Limit your use of fonts. If you do use two or more fonts be sure to select fonts from different categories. There are three main font categories: serif (which have tiny “feet” on the letters), sans serif (with no decorative “feet”) and decorative (which include highly decorative and script or handwritten fonts).

9. Don’t overdo it with animation. If you plan to use animation in your ad, there are a few things to consider. You want the animation to draw the eye without offending the online viewer. When setting the animation speed, look for something that changes at a slow to moderate pace. It helps to set your animations so that they stop after three cycles; some sites may insist on this.

10. Less really is more. As you create your design, remember that less cluttered messages will make a stronger impact with the online viewer. Limit the number of elements — the colors, fonts, graphics and words — that you use in your ad and ask yourself whether your primary message is clear.

Web sites for the Banner Advertising:

Banner Exchange Programs: These programs offer a simple service. If you post a certain number of banner ads on your site, they will post your banner ad on another site. Usually, this isn’t an even exchange; you have to post more than one banner ad for every one of your banner ads they post. This is how the exchange program makes a profit. Their arrangement yields them more banner ad spaces than actual banner ads they need to place for their members, so they can sell the extra banner ad spaces to paying advertisers.

Buying Advertising Space: We can also buy a banner advertising space to place our advertisements and to do so we can use various sites.

Selling Advertising Space: Selling banner advertising space is a great way to use your site’s traffic to generate revenue, but it can be a bit tricky. The easiest option is to join a banner ad network, which will recruit advertisers, keep track of your earnings, and control banner ad placement on your site. In exchange for these services, the network will take a hefty percentage of the advertising money generated by your ad space. If your site gets a good deal of traffic, more than 100,000 impressions per month, then you should be able to join a good banner network’s CPM program.

How much money might you make through a banner ad net

How to Leverage Banner Advertising Properly

In this article we will learn about banner advertising, so first off, what is banner advertising? A web banner, or a banner ad, is a type of advertising on the internet. Basically, your ad will be displayed on a web page in form of a banner, with the main purpose to attract prospects to clicking on that banner. When your banner is clicked, they are automatically brought to your website, to be most effective, banner advertisements are usually placed on web pages that are known for having interesting and unique content.

Alright, getting into it, your ease of set up is going to be around the moderate level, so not to difficult, not to easy. Your looking at about less than three hours for setup time, minimal maintenance, and about a moderate level as far as speed of results. This is a paid form of advertising, your cost will vary between advertisers. There are two factors that generally are going to effect the cost of a banner advertisement, the website’s traffic level, and the placement of the banner within the website. Banner advertisements can be very effective, because you can pretty much pick and chose your targeted audience, and can also provide you with a nice flow of consistent traffic.

Here are some Basic First Action Steps:

1. You must get familiar with the Terminology

Impression- every time that your banner loads on a website, in other words is shown on a website, will be considered a impression.

Click- When someone clicks on your banner ad, it will be counted as a click.

Conversions- A conversion is when someone becomes a lead after going to your site and opting in.

CPM- CPM is Cost Per Thousand, this measures how much you will pay for your banner ad, you will find that sometimes you may be charged on a CPM basic level, all this means is you are being charged for impression, not for the click. You are going to want to chose sites that you pay between $2.00 to $2.50, that will be ideal, stay away from the sites that charge 4 to 5 CPM, some sites are even charging up to $15 CPM, you can see how a snake in the grass can bite you.

CPA- CPA is Cost Per Action, this will measure how much you will pay for your ad by the actions taken. A action will be either considered a click, or a impression, if a site is using a CPA basis, then you will pay for a actual click, that is ideal rather than paying for a impression.

CTR- Your CTR is your Click Through Rate, this is your ratio of impression to clicks, just to give you a example of that ratio, if you had 1000 impressions of your banner ad, and 10 people clicked on it, your ratio would be 1%.

Cost Per Conversion- Cost Per Conversion is going to be how much it cost you to get a lead, for a example, if you spent 30 dollars right, and you got 8 leads, than that would make your cost per conversion $3.75.

Publisher- Publishers are going to be the websites that allow your banner advertising.

Advertiser- You are the advertiser, just have to make sure you know.

2. You are going to want to Research Websites

Its is very important for you to know how websites are making their money so you can realize your opportunity through them. Most sites are out to either make a profit, or cover their websites hosting and maintenance fee. You need to examine these sites to see if they are either selling advertising space, selling their product or service, or a combination of both. You need to track your website research with a list to make it easier for you. To get a idea of websites you want to look at, start by looking at websites and blogs that you look at a lot, and see if they have any banner advertisements on them. If they do, you are going to want to add them to your research list, if they are not, you can scan over the website and see exactly how they are making money, if they are making another form of profit, you can add them to your list as well, or just move on.

Now you must choose your target market, this can be anything, whatever group and audience you are targeting will be the sites you will want to be advertising on. You can Google keywords of your target market and go to sites, not the sponsored websites, but the organic results, and see if they are offering banner advertising.

You can use a website called Alexa to find out a whole bunch about a website you are researching to help you with your website research, you must do your research like anything else, you do not want to just go out there and post a banner ad on the first site you land on with out making sure the site is legit, the cost is ideal, etc, do not always worry about being the fast fox, the slow turtle usually always wins in most cases, so compile your research, and then take action. Remember to, you are looking for sites with quality content, unique, does it provide value to readers. Also you want to make sure that the site you chose will attract viewers you want, and that your ad is similar to their reason for being on the site, this way your results will be maximized.

3. Now lets talk about placing your Banner Advertisement

Ok, this is a valuable key to remember, when your looking at advertising rates, or what the publisher is charging for advertising space, do not be quick to pay the published rate like most people will do. You can actually call the website owner, webmaster, or the advertising manager, and negotiate the price, most websites will reduce their price by 40 to 50% of the published rate, that is most significant, why pay more if you do not have to?

You must understand placement of your ad, very important, always be above the fold. What that means is, the top portion of the website that you see in your browser, always do this for optimal performance, a impression will still be counted even if you advertised below the fold and they never scrolled down and saw it, so choose wisely but I always recommend above the fold.

I also would advise to start small in your budget when doing banner advertising, you know if you do Google pay per click, you should know that your budget needs to be high to get the best results, this is different. You will probably be pressured into some long term deal at a special rate, just tell the website owner that you are testing out this banner, if you start to see good results, than you will consider it further, that will get you out of any selling they will try to do.

You will get all your links, artwork, anything you need from the website, to get your banner setup and running properly.

4. Track your Results

I will not say much about this, tracking your results is always best for determining cost per leads, and really making sure that you are getting the best return on investment.

One more tip before I end this article, if you can get your ad to blend in really well with a site your advertising on, and the site is a high volume traffic site, you feel you are going to get some really good results with it, then try to blend it in as best as possible. This can be really effective, people may even think your banner is part of the site.

Well that is what you need to get out there and start leveraging banner advertising, to bring more traffic to your site, and produce more leads. Do your research, just don’t jump into the race, be positive you have found a good spot, the right targeted traffic, and you are paying a ideal price.

General Points of Banner Advertising

Banner advertising is one of the oldest forms of Internet advertising. The advantages of this method of advertising for the site were most evident in the early era of Internet advertising. The first banner ad campaigns were quite primitive – simple manual exchange of non-standardized advertising images with links between webmasters.

After some time, there have formed standard sizes for banners:

468 x 60 – big stretch, it is one of the oldest and most popular types of banners. These banners are supported by all banner exchange networks. The largest and most visible type of banner, allowing not only to attract attention and interest to the user, but also to convey sufficient information about the advertised site.

100 x 100 – “square banner.” Became popular as an option for placing a banner in the website navigation bars, but eventually got the status of the standard. Not supported by all banner exchange networks, but is quite popular with manual banner exchange.

88 x 31 – “button” – this banner exchange is very limited in supported exchange networks, particularly by large, but has become almost standard “de facto” in the exchange of banners and links.

120 x 60 – “small banner” – not available to all banner exchange networks, but they are quite common in the direct sale of advertising space on websites.

234 x 60 – “half a large stretching.” Situation is similar to the banner 120 by 60.

“The eye” is the banner of arbitrary shape with navigation elements.

These standards remain relevant today. With this standardization occurred the opportunity to build the most effective banner exchange network. Banner exchange networks have emerged as a logical consequence of the desire to simplify the webmaster banner exchange to “cross” advertise their resources. As a result, there has been created several mechanisms for the exchange standard of banners, acting on a “show other people’s banners on your site and we will show on your other sites.” Thus the profit banner networks formed and are composed of a certain percentage of impressions (usually from 10 to 30), which are allocated to the impressions of commercial (paid) banners, raised a banner network.

The first banner ads did not have any opportunities to target – show “all and for all.” However, in view of the unemployment market efficiency such advertising was high enough. The main indicator of the effectiveness of banner – CTR (ratio of impressions to clicks the user) was from 2 to 10 or even more percent. For comparison – in the current banner networks is considered a good indicator of CTR at 1 percent. Naturally, together with the growth of the market changed and banner ads, adapting to the requirements of advertising specialists. Today’s networks have extensive opportunities to target, often narrow specialization, as well as highly customizable displays. There is an opportunity to choose not only the desired theme sites, where you would like to see your banner, but their geography, display time, the type of operating system user, etc. All this has allowed banner networks to remain competitive enough.

Nevertheless, many experts prefer to manually ad paid banner placement on the resources that are considered promising in terms of getting targeted traffic. This method has both advantages and disadvantages. The main advantage – theoretically much greater efficiency than in the case of banner exchange networks and there is no need to allocate site locations

If in the case of banner exchange costs are practically zero (excluding the cost of manufacture of the banner) in the case of purchase displays in the network are measured in units of dollars per 1,000 impressions, in case of direct purchase banner space for the costs can be ten times more and not be measured in clicks or shows, and in time intervals. For example, $ 30 per day or $ 200 a month. However it is possible to return the money at the apparent failure of the campaign is not possible.

On the other hand, manual tracking and placement of banners can provide a higher CTR, but some sites allow and pay “per click”, whereby you only pay for visitors. You can call this method of advertising the most effective of all methods of banner advertising. True, it requires an order of magnitude larger budget than the use of banner exchange networks and redemption shows through them.

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Using Banner Advertising To Promote Your Website

Since 1994, when banner advertising first appeared on the internet, there has been a considerable increase in its use in online marketing. Anyone who is serious about online advertising should learn more about using banner advertising as an integral part of their website marketing plan.

A web banner advertising campaign will display an advertisement thousands of times to targeted visitors of other websites and is an effective form of website promotion. Banner advertising is a great way to promote a website and is a form of advertising that exposes an internet advertising banner in a prominent location on relevant websites.

Online banner advertising is an excellent way to promote brand awareness, increase visitor traffic and generate sales

Web banner advertising is an excellent way to promote brand awareness, increase visitor traffic and generate sales. It is the equivalent of newspaper or magazine advertising in the online world. Banners are often animated to capture the attention of the visitor, and can display a variety of images and information including a company logo. An internet advertising banner can be linked to a specific page of a website that is relevant to the products or services being advertised, this will enable a visitor to click through to a web page and immediately view further information and purchase the products or services.

Animated banners are a great way to catch the eye of potential customers

The success of an internet advertising banner depends on how effectively it is designed and the creativity used in the banner. The objective is to create a design that grabs the attention of visitors. This can be achieved by using a good combination of colors, some form of animation and a catchy strap line. Animated banners are a great way to catch the eye of potential customers. Flash banners in particular can have very rich animated content with a very small file size.

The success of the banner design can be measured by the number of visitors that click through to the target web page. Normally an internet advertising banner that offers some sort of incentive to the visitor will achieve a higher click through rate.

Banner sizes are measured in pixels and many different sizes and shapes can be used

Banner sizes are measured in pixels, the most popular banner size is 468×60. However there are many different sizes and shapes available and an effective online banner advertising campaign should contain a mix of these. Skyscrapers in particular can be very effective as they are displayed down the side of a web page and therefore stay in view for longer as the user scrolls down the page. An ideal mix of sizes for a campaign would be as follows:

Banners (468×60)

Leaderboards (728×90)

Skyscrapers (120×600)

Rectangles (300×250)

Campaigns can be purchased on either a CPM basis (cost per thousand impressions) or on a CPC basis (cost per click)

Costs for banner advertising campaigns vary widely, according to the required targeting options, the size of banners used and the volume of inventory purchased. Web banner advertising campaigns can be purchased on either a CPM basis (cost per thousand impressions) or on a CPC basis (cost per click).

Purchasing a banner advertising campaign on a cost per click basis is the most sensible option for a company that has no previous experience of this type of advertising. This will enable a fixed budget to be agreed for a guaranteed number of clicks and the publishing network take the risk of displaying the banner (impressions) as many times as required to ensure the agreed number of clicks are achieved. However if a company has previous experience of this type of advertising and has achieved a high click through rate for previous campaigns, then it may be more cost effective to purchase the inventory on a CPM basis.

There are many different publishing networks to choose from and each network offers varying levels of geographic, demographic and behavioral targeting

Online banner advertising campaigns can be set up to target specific countries, regions such as Europe or even Worldwide. Demographic targeting options are also available to fit the target audience for specific products or services. There are many different publishing networks to choose from and each network offers varying levels of geographic, demographic and behavioral targeting.

Web banner advertising is highly measurable and reports can be generated to track the number of impressions served, click through rates and sales conversion rates. Reliable campaign statistics can provide a wide range of information that can be used to improve the response rate for future internet advertising banner campaigns.