Finances

Welcome back to the series of online advertising. If you haven’t already read parts one and two, be sure to check them out and get caught up.

Today I will talk about Banner Ads and how they can work for you to promote yourself and your product and also assist in creating some additional revenue. Practically every website you go to will have a banner advertisement of one sort or another on the page. The purpose of the banner ad is to drive the traffic from the current site to the ad site.

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

The banner advertisement resembles the general print media advertisement seen in magazines and periodicals but has the added feature of being able to transform into different presentations that all connect to the same place- Your website.

In a joint presentation of research studies, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB), and member companies DoubleClick Inc. and MSN unveiled their separate studies on the effectiveness of branding on the Internet. Additionally, CNET Networks Inc. released information from a study done with Millward Brown Intelliquest.

All three research efforts examined the brand effectiveness of online marketing units including the Interactive Marketing Units (IMUs), for which the IAB issued voluntary guidelines in February of this year.

The overall takeaway from each study reinforces the fact that online advertising can be used effectively for branding.

Some highlights from the three studies presented in New York include:

  • The standard IAB 468 X 60 banner works to increase brand awareness, message association, brand favorability and purchase intent.
  • Bigger is better. The new larger IAB IMU formats improve key branding metrics by an average of 40% across all three studies compared to baseline measures for the nine advertisers.
  • Rich Media technologies such as Audio, Video, Flash and DHTML used with IMUs deliver greater impact and conclusively increase branding effectiveness.
  • Ad implementation makes a difference too. Interstitial ads, displayed during a transition from one Web page to the next, boost key brand metrics by an average of 194%.

As with print ads, online banner ads come in different shapes and sizes.

The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) specifies eight different banner sizes, according to pixel dimensions.

  • 480×60 pixels (Full Banner)
  • 392×72 pixels (Full Banner with directional bar on one end)
  • 234×60 pixels (Half Banner)
  • 120×240 pixels (Vertical Banner)
  • 125×125 pixels (Square Button)
  • 120×90 pixels (Button size 1)
  • 120×60 pixels (Button size 2)
  • 88×31 pixels (micro sized button)

Many websites limit the size of advertisement you are allowed to place on their site because of memory space they occupy. The larger the ad, the longer the browser will take to load the page.

In the event your banner ad is not clicked on, don’t fret. Your branding image has been seen and is now in the viewers head. The exposure you want has been achieved. Now they know you’re on the web and perhaps may visit your site at a later date and if all goes well a purchase will be made.

Creating your own banner ad can be done by just about anybody with basic HTML computer knowledge. To code the banner, simply combine the HTML tag for a link with the HTML tag for an image. You can create the necessary graphics using a simple computer art program.

There are also Web sites that offer free banner ad creation. Some provide you with all the components you need to create your own banner ad, or you supply the information and they create a banner ad for you.

Some popular free banner design sites are:

Many web users have developed skepticism from clicking on contaminated advertisements. To avoid this, you want to home your ads on reputable sites that compliment your skills and services.

Often, online businesses will trade banner ad space with other businesses. This keeps the advertising costs to a minimum for all parties involved and generates traffic for both websites. The down side to this method is the time it takes to develop relationships with webmasters you would like to trade off with.

A quick way to get your ad on many sites without paying a lot of money or investing a lot of time is by joining a banner exchange program. However, by using a banner exchange program, you forfeit all the control of what ads will appear on your website and where your banner ad will appear.

Here are some exchange programs you may be interested in:

Joining a banner exchange program is pretty easy to do. Shopping around and learning all you can about any exchange program is very important because different banner exchange programs have different strengths. You’ll want to find the program that best fits with your style and needs. Some programs concentrate on effective banner placement more than others, and some specialize in Web sites that feature a particular subject matter. Most banner exchange programs are free to join, but some also offer a better exchange ratio for a small fee.

Another route you can go is to hire an advertising agency to handle your banner ads. They will do all the legwork of creating the ad and placing the ad on the appropriate websites based on your direction and budget. Some advertising agencies will also monitor the progress and effectiveness of the ad placement, for additional costs, of course. This can become very costly, but if you have the funds to go this route, it is the easiest and least time consuming for you.

Next week our closer look will be on e-mail marketing. How it works, what’s involved, and how it serves as a great tool for marketing yourself.

Creative Commons License photo credit: noricum