by Bronwyn Minnie

Created on: May 11, 2010

Banner ads

Banner ads are a form of advertising used on the internet.  Banner adverts are usually colorful and mostly flashing ads designed to attract instant attention.  The use of animation, sound and video is common for this kind of advertising.  Web banners or banner ads are the same as traditional adverts and do the same function; they give information on products and services and sometimes provide reasons why you should use this product or service.  Banner ads were first used online in the 1980’s by a company called ‘Prodigy’ as online advertising.  In 1993 Global Network Navigator (GNN) made the first clickable web ad and this is where the term ‘Banner Ad’ comes from.  Banner ads can sometimes be annoying because they distract users on websites, but this is the whole idea.  If a banner ad does not attract your attention the advertisement is not working effectively.  Clicking a banner ad usually opens the web site it is linked to, this is known as ‘click through’.  Today’s modern web browsers often have functions to disable pop-ups or block images from certain web pages.  Banner ads appear on all types of web pages, they are usually rectangular in shape, but contain different information based on the company and also differ in color and animation.  They do however have one thing in common; they all take you back to the advertiser’s web site by simply clicking on them.  Their importance to businesses on the web has grown tremendously.  The banner ad is one of the most popular means of income on the internet today.  It is a simple form of HTML, a type of hypertext link.  It brings potential customers direct to your site.  Although a banner ad stays in one place on a page, the images and the appearance can change in multiple ways.

A great many businesses, big and small enterprises alike use banner ads as part of their advertising strategies to increase exposure and hopefully sales.  Page views are the number of times a page has been requested and viewed, the same applies to banners except that some server programs don’t count a view if the pages was not open long enough for the banner ad to download fully.  The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has set specified sizes for use on banner ads that you can find in their Ad Unit Guidelines.  You will see a lot of square button type banners on some sites, but these are not according to the set standards.  There are many ways to get a banner ad for your company.  You can go to sites and purchase advertising space, design your own banner and place it in the space you bought.  This is how ever time-consuming and sometimes frustrating.  You will also find that a lot of sites have a third party handling their advertising.  Using a third party agent might be easier and quicker, and you can still select where you want your ads to appear.  There are four ways in which banner ad space is sold.  Option one is that you pay between $2 and $100 or more every time your ad appears.  Option two is calculated on the amount of times your ad has been clicked and this runs anywhere from .01 cents to $25 and up.  Option three is by leads only, if your ad generates a catalog request, a trial download or a registration you pay between $0.50 and $5.00.  Option four is by sales and you pay a commission, anything from 5% to 50% every time your advert is clicked and a product purchased.  If this is the advertising you want, just go online and do a search for banner ad space for sale.

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