| A web banner or banner ad is a popular form of | | | | more visitors attention, many banner ads are now |
| advertising on the Internet. As you've probably noticed | | | | designed using flash to add multimedia elements |
| while surfing the Web, there are different types of | | | | including animation, sound, video, game, and interactivity. |
| banner ads. Banner ads are usually small image files in | | | | These interactive banner ads often outperform their |
| GIF or Adobe Flash format embedded on a web | | | | static counterparts by more than 200%. |
| page, their presence on the Internet and their | | | | Website visitors are more likely to notice banners that |
| importance for many online business is immense. | | | | have moving pictures or fun and playable. Example: if |
| Banner advertisements appear on all sorts of | | | | you have a small flash game embed inside a flash |
| websites and has different appearance and subjects, | | | | banner, many visitors will play that game, and be |
| but they all share a basic function: attract eyeballs and | | | | redirected to your website after they have 'win' or |
| clicks. Similar to a traditional ad you would see in a | | | | 'lose' the game. Although interactive banners are |
| printed publication such as a newspaper or magazine, | | | | usually larger in terms of file sizes, the popularity of |
| a banner ad tells website viewers information about | | | | broadband Internet connection has increased its |
| advertiser, with the added ability to bring a interested | | | | popularity as most web surfers can now see these |
| customer directly to the advertiser's website. | | | | ads a lot faster than the dial-up era. |
| Banner ads come in a variety of shapes, formats and | | | | With so many banner ads on different websites |
| sizes. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) specifies | | | | competing for viewer attention, it is important to plan |
| different banner sizes according to pixel dimensions. | | | | your online banner ad campaign carefully, and only |
| IAB standard banner sizes are not the only banner ad | | | | place banners on related website to attract the |
| shapes and sizes, but they are a good representation | | | | correct target group of audiences. You should also |
| of the range of common banner ads. And the actual | | | | outsource your banner design to professional banner |
| creative of banner ads varies considerably. The | | | | ad designers, because an attractive, interactive banner |
| simplest online banner ad is a static GIF or JPEG | | | | ad can perform significantly better than a boring, static |
| image, with a HTML link to the advertiser's home page. | | | | image, so to maximum the return of your online |
| Advertisers usually measure effectiveness of their | | | | advertising campaign. |
| banner ad performance base on click-through rate | | | | Before you contact a banner ad designer, ensure you |
| (CTR) -- which describes the ratio of page views to | | | | have your requirements for the banner ad listed clearly |
| clicks. It is expressed as the percentage of total | | | | first, including the text line, images, preferred color |
| visitors to a particular web page who actually clicked | | | | theme and landing page for the banner to link to. |
| on the banner ad after viewing. The typical CTR of | | | | There are many advertising agencies and professional |
| most banners is under 1 percent, and CTR significantly | | | | designers you can contact online to create |
| higher thanthat are very rare. | | | | professionally looking banners, give you access to their |
| The decreasing CTR of banner ads prompted a new | | | | design and programming skills, banner templates, and |
| crop of internet ads to be born. In order to capture | | | | also their creativity and extensive experience. |