What is Banner Ads?

Banner Ads are a type of online advertising that is used by advertisers to bring in traffic from other websites and networks. It’s a display ad wherein you can use images in different formats and can also add text.

Banner Ads are very popular as they are noticed by people easily and enjoy good click-through-rates (CTR). These are generally placed at the top of webpages and are noticed better by people.

Banner Ads are the placement of a small square or rectangular display or graphic ad on a website. When a visitor clicks on the ad, they are bought to the advertiser’s website.

Websites leases space to ad networks and those ad networks serve displays within that space depending on a variety of targeting techniques.

Banner ads use various images such as JS, JPEG, or GIF which are enabled by technologies such as Flash, and Shockwave.

Today banner ads can be displayed across desktop websites, mobile websites, and smartphone apps. These ads are published on good websites and networks so that they can bring in good traffic and promote your website.

Banner Ads can be highly targeted using retargeting and allow you to target visitors who have already shown an interest in your business by visiting your website.

Today interactive banner ads, video banner ads, and animated ads are also used by the advertisers as they have a better click-through-rates (CTR).

You need to find out some crucial important answers before designing banner:

• Who am I talking to? Define and evaluate your target audience specifically and figure out what you want.
• Identify the value proposition.
• What is the desired size of the banner ads?
• What are the fonts and styles that match your purpose?
• A clear ides on-brand colors and quality photos to be used.

The first banner ad was new, unique, and attention-grabbing. It drove both brand recognition and click-through-rates to the advertiser’s website.

The first banner ad came out in 1994, which had a CTR of 44% and was run by Wired Magazines.

Tips to Create Highly Effective Banner Ads –

Banner ads are rectangular graphic displays on a website, and the first contact a potential customer has with your brand.

If a user clicks on a banner, they’ll be redirected to the advertiser’s own website. An advertiser buys advertising space on a website with related content.

You can use services like Google Double Click that will help to roll out your ads across a range of online outlets.

Banner ads are embedded into a webpage with the ultimate aim of achieving high click-through-rates and low cost per sale.

There are few things to bear in mind when considering strategy:

# Ads Size – Banner ads are not one size that fits for all types of projects. Ad’s sizes are also important to successfully inviting the viewers to click on it.

There are several banner ads sizes used on several advertising platforms or advertising ad networks. There is a range of different banner dimensions that are most successful in displaying and fitting your ad onto any webpage.

Here are a few common banner sizes that range from:

—- Leaderboard – 728×90

—- Medium Rectangle – 250×300

—- Half Page Ad – 300×600

—- Skyscraper – 120×600

—- Square Ads – 250×250

—- Large Mobile – 320×100

—- Mobile Leaderboard – 320×50

Leaderboard ads are displayed usually on the top or bottom of the webpage and Skyscraper ads are displayed on the sidebars of the webpage.

Each platform like Facebook, Google, YouTube, and LinkedIn has its own specifications for a banner ad.

# File Format – There are two main categories in banner ads which are Standard, and Interactive.

Standard banners are simple that contain GIF, JPEG, or Flash. These are static and any click interaction on it leads to the advertiser’s landing page.

Interactive banners are highly interactive and dynamic. They offer more than one interaction and try to get users to engage.

These ads may include any game or video that contains any interactive element and at least one call to action (CTA) like a contact form within a single banner.

JPEG and PNGs are used to display static ads and GIFs and SWFs are better known for animated ones. The smaller files mean quicker load times and keep your website visitors waiting will miss potential conversions.

# Call to Action (CTA) – A call to action (CTA) is what invites prospective buyers into discovering more about your product or service.

A strong call to action will likely to generate great conversion results with a contrast color to increase CTR. Your CTA text should be short with a one-sentence header and a one-sentence subheader.

The words that give clear directions such as “Click here”, “Submit”, and “Join Now” are proven to show high results in the number of clicks.

You can use banner ad campaign phrases like “Sign-up”, “Learn more”, or “Get Started”, or “Watch Now”.

A bright, eye-catching CTA points out your target audience in the right direction, and links with your product page are a good way to get clicks on your website.

# Images – The text, use of images, and graphics should also be minimal. Related graphics and photos that boost your message are directly related to product or service.

The designing banner ad requires greater graphics which will focus on attracting customers to click on and visit the website of the advertiser.

Animated banner ads appeal to the eye more than static ads and generate better results. Animation is an awesome approach to quickly get the viewer’s attention and you can consider an animated banner ad design.

# Appropriate Colors – Every color has a different association, and it’s important to think about what types of emotions you want to suggest in your audience.

Colors will be the first thing a user notices in your banner ads. Colors are subjective and have different associations in different cultures. You should make sure to study your target audience when making your color selections.

# Page Position – You should choose the right places to place your banners for effective results. What is in your mind to place these banner ads after they are created?

If the user is using services like social ads or Google ads then you may not have a lot of control over the placement.

If you are using directly to specific websites, apps, social, or e-newsletters, you should think to look at the design before starting on ads.

Many banner ads are displayed at the top of webpages and it’s a good practice to create them in low sizes.  

The most successful ad positions are with the content (45%), heading (30%), left side (8%), right side (10%), rotating ads (5%), and below the fold ads (2%).

Heat maps reveal some extremely useful analysis when it comes to e-commerce banner ads positioning.

# Number of Adverts – You may choose to display numerous adverts on a particular page. You should look to produce designs that complement the webpage itself.

You need to make a balance without dominating the page content and it’ll be a nice way to reinforce your message and brand.

# Effective Content – You’ve to quickly scan your content of banner ads. You can consider a few important things when commissioning your campaigns:

—- Display your logo and company name very prominently on your ads.

—- Use a suitable Call to Action (CTA) button.

—- Use brand colors and restrict fonts to one or two at the max with consistency in your brand image.

—- Use rich media. The interactive ads have better click-through-rates.

—- Consider animation and movement.

Benefits of Banner Ads –

Banner ads are a commonly used form of advertising because of their diversity, inexpensiveness, and easily measured results with click-through-rates (CTR).

Banner ads have great benefits that offer:

# Engagement – The rich content such as audio, and video encourages users to interact and provides a deeper level of engagement with your message. It’s one of the lead generation engines for the brand.

All kinds of paid ad promotions such as pay-per-click (PPC), Google display ads, remarketing ads, native ads and social media ads rely on banners to get qualified leads.

# Broader Reach – Online advertising provides the means to reach huge audiences via a single channel. You can access millions of websites directly from your Google AdWords account with the help of the Google Display Network (GDN).

# Brand Building – Banner ads are the perfect vehicle for generating brand awareness used with landing pages and integrated marketing campaigns. Banner ads can grow brand awareness among audiences.

There are various strategies such as brand recalling, exclusive brand style sheets, alignment, logo placement, and style charts to hit the right tone for your brand creatives.

# Measurability – Banner ads are targeted to particular audiences. They can also be monitored and analyzed during the course of a campaign.

Banner ads are also able to use cookies and further expand sales possibilities. It gives the ability to pull your campaign.

Google AdWords can track clicks, impressions, and conversions. Google Analytics is helpful for tracking deep performance and engagement tracking.

# Access on Mobile – Banner ads have the possibility to reach people using in-app and mobile web advertising.

Google AdSense offers various ad sizes that are optimized for mobile traffic and Google AdSense mobile anchor ads have proven their efficiency.

# Increased Traffic – The chances to clicks on banner ads are high. You can also target the right audience by placing your ads on the right websites.

It’ll include demographic and geo-targeting along with specific interests of your target audience with the help of Google Display Network’s extensive reach.

These ads encourage visitors to go on the advertiser’s website by clicking on it. The best tool for measuring the ads’ effectiveness is when it comes to increasing your traffic and to see people click or leave.

Banner Ads Network List –

You may already have specific websites in your mind and you can directly contact them and to see if they’ve any advertising guidelines listed on these websites.

Here are a few different advertising networks that allow you to spread your ads across a collection of websites:

# Google AdWords – Google AdWords is the biggest banner ads network in the industry. Google also owns AdSense, Double Click, and AdMob which are great platforms that allow millions of publishers all over the world.

Google AdWords allows advertisers from all backgrounds to buy banner ads on its platform using the bidding system.

Google AdWords has a variety of targeting options such as Keywords, Topics, Categories, Manage Placement, and Industry.

Optimization and retargeting options are also available on the Google display advertising network. It allows advertisers to improve the advertising campaign on a daily basis to maximize their campaign potentials.

# Yahoo / Bing – Yahoo and Bing are another popular banner ads network. Both are merged to compete with other giants such as Google AdWords and Facebook.

Yahoo and Bing share banner ads on both their platforms which means ads on Bing are as good as placing on both. Yahoo Ads are displayed on all their major platforms such as Yahoo mail, Yahoo search engines, and Medi.net.

The combination of both ad networks gives advertisers opportunities to target their customers with several channels using keywords.

# Commission Junction – Commission Junction provides a large network of ad publishing websites from which you can connect with to display banner ads on websites, emails, RSS feeds, and more.

Drawbacks of Banner Ads –

There are some drawbacks to banner ads that include:

# Banner Blindness – Many users ignore display ads completely and it results in fewer click-through-rates. It can be avoided using remarketing and rich media ads.

# Ad Blocks – The ad blocker technology has risen in popularity over the past few years. Many brands and media channels have tried to avoid it by giving users the option of allowing ads or purchasing a subscription.

Conclusion – Banner Ads cost varies greatly and depends on many factors to determine the real cost of ads. Banner’s sizes and the placement also determine the cost of ads. Ad networks also influence the cost of banner ads. There can be different approaches to achieving a successful banner with creativity. Banner ads are the silver bullet of digital marketing.