banner ads

banner ads

Web banners or banner ads are advertisements that are embedded into web pages; they are displayed when a web page that has references to a web banner is loaded into the web browser. Web banners are designed to attract traffic to a website and account for 54% of total online advertising revenue. (www.Ciaadvertising.com)
Web banners function in the same way and for identical reasons as traditional advertisements; they are paid for by an identified sponsor and communicate a clear message to a specific audience. Banner ads enable the sponsor to reach specified target audience by selectively choosing the web pages that will reference them.

Targeting:
When creating, designing and placing a web banner it is important to consider the rules of Online Advertising: Segmenting, targeting and positioning online. The target market must always be considered even to the exclusion of all others, because it doesn’t matter if there high click through rates if the people who are clicking through have no intention of purchasing the product or service. It is essential therefore that the selection of web of media is appropriate to the consumer; this may mean the careful selection of websites. Generally speaking banners should be placed close to web pages that have content related to the product and or service, and should be designed to attract the desired audience ( Kaye,B Medoff. N. 2001,p125).
Banner ads utilise smart ad technology to assist in specifying targeting, this means that the banner ad is used in association with search engine optimisation, enabling a banner ad to have associated words ensuring impact and a low waste online presence that effectively utilises the pull medium of the Internet. (Adams, 2003, p 17)

Banner Formats:
The format of a banner ad holds both possibilities and limitation for the advertiser and designer.
The available sized formats are:

· 468x80 pixels = full banner

· 392x72 Pixels = full banner with vertical navigation Bar

· 234x60 Pixels = half Banner

· 120x240 pixels = vertical banner

· 120x90 Pixels = button 1

· 120x60 = button 2

· 125x 125 = square button

· 88x31= micro button

Banner Placement:
The placement of a banner affects its communication effectiveness, research has uncovered that the bottom of the right hand corner and the button next to the scroll bar a third of the way down from the top of the page generates a substantial percentage of the click throughs, Adams (2003. p128).

Banners can be placed in various places on a web page. Designers are increasingly trying to out smart programs such as spyareblaster and Lavasoft Ad-Aware by changing the position of the ads to create unique positions around the page, The Internet advertising Bureau introduced new sizes and proportion for Internet advertisers in 2001 (Tedeschi, 2001). This attempt at cheating anti ad programs run at a high risk of agitating people who do not want to see the ads, and interfering with the flow of text, which can ultimately resulting in legibility and repeat visits to the page.

Attacking Banner Ads
Some people believe that banner ads are limited in their ability to convey product information and alluring product imagery, web surfers either ignore the banners or use software to automatically strip the pages they view (LaRose, 2004) Hendler(2003) establishes that 68% of Internet users think two ad units per page is too much, and 36% say they will leave a site, if it has too many ads and would encourage them to either leave a web page or install Ad-ware. Banner ads when first launched in 1996, a media that has been increasingly ignored. Nielsen/ Netratings have established that the Industry-wide overall click-through rates have plunged to around 0.6% and are getting lower every year (Weiss, 2001).

Defending The Banner Ad
Despite the criticism of banner ads they have been and continue to be a staple of Internet advertising since 1994 and appears to be a future prospect of advertising media. A survey that reported that women are now the majority of spenders online and consider the Internet as their first resource of product information (Mahoney, 2001) provides proof that banner ads are not falling on deaf ears as Banner ads are the cause 54% of total online advertising revenue. (www.Ciaadvertising.com) Ads have the power to make people aware of products, build brand equity and create brand name associations producing high recall. There is a belief that has sprung up through marketing and phycology research theory called "pre-attentive processing." stating even if a ad viewer does not consciously register the ads that they still can effectively retain information (Weiss, 2001).

The Internet has grown and continues to grow at such a fast rate that banner ads are a media that advertisers cannot afford to overlook