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A GUIDE TO ONLINE DIGITAL BANNER ADVERTISING

Web Banner Ads

The most popular form of web advertising are banner ads. HotWired, the commercial web magazine was the first website to feature banner ads which consist of either text, static images (JPEG/PNG/GIF), animation - most commonly in the form of Flash, or interactivity such as video, games or sound to maximise their appeal. These banner adverts are slotted into a web page with the intention of enticing people into clicking on them, taking the user through to the advertisers page, thus increasing traffic to that site.

Click here for examples of these ads.

Leaderboards/ Skyscrapers/MPUs/Buttons/Tiles - Banner ads

Banner adverts are usually in high aspect-ratio shape (long and thin, or tall and narrow), their similarity to actual banners is where they get their name. Banner ads also come in a variety of sizes, all of which have similarly self explanatory names - Leaderboard: long and thin and resemble an entry on a golf leaderboard, Skyscraper, so called because it is tall and thin, MPU which is multi purpose has the most accommodating shape and is about the same proportions as a TV and tiles and buttons which are small rectangular ads.

Page Impressions vs Click Throughs

Two frequently used terms in the banner advertising industry are 'click-through' and 'page impressions'. A click-through is the number of people who click on that banner ad, whereas a page impression is every time that advert is displayed in a user's web browser.

How are banner adverts paid for?

An advertiser would usually either pay for a banner advertising campaign which guarantees them a certain number of page impressions (the number of times as ad is displayed in a user's browser) or the alternative is a CPC (cost per click) campaign, where the host website would charge the advertiser only when a user clicked on his ad to visit his site.

Ad servers

An ad server is a company employed to manage and track banner advertising campaigns. They will arrange the delivery and placement of banner adverts, where and how often they appear and created reports detailing times and locations of clickthroughs, page impressions and conversion rates, ie how many times the banner advert was seen by a user compared to how many times it was clicked on. This is beneficial for webmasters wanting to concentrate on building great websites with good content and also advertising clients who can monitor how successful their campaign is as it unfolds.

Flash Banner advertising and traditional ad campaigns

Internet banner advertising has exactly the same premise as more traditional methods of advertising - Its goal is to create greater awareness of whatever the advertiser has to offer its potential customers, and why they should choose them over their competitors.

On-the-fly updating

The real benefit of banner advertising is that campaign results can be monitored real-time and banner adverts may be targeted to the interests of the viewer.

Attention grabbing banner ads or a hindrance

Whereas a banner advert that is designed well can produce amazing results, a poorly conceived and put together banner ad can be an annoyance and hamper the viewer in reading the main content of the page they are ultimately there to read. A banner advert that isn't optimised with size in mind can also take up a lot of important bandwidth.

Whilst it is important to grab the attention of the user it is also important to consider that if he or she finds it too offensive it will leave them feeling exasparated and is that how you'd like your customers to feel?

Google's pay per click Advertising tool

Adwords by Google is a PPC, or pay per click advertising tool which allows you to promote your site with text ads or banner ads in all of the usual sizes on related Google results pages or related sites. Text ads are limited to a title and a two lined description. PPC advertising means that the advertiser only pays for ads that a user has clicked upon resulting in traffic to their site.

Exciting new Rich Media

Other more creative options are available for digital online advertising, which is largely down to the versatility of Flash. This is known as Rich Media which includes videos, interactivity such as forms, puzzles, apps, games, videos and much more. There are also other non-traditional ad slots available such as expandable banner ads which react to fill the screen when a user interacts with them using their mouse pointer, page peels which appear to peel away the page when the user moves their mouse pointer over a selected area, a page overlay (or interstitial) whereby an advert fills the entire screen over the content of the page.