Banner Advertising Effectiveness

Banner advertising emerged as an effective way of Internet marketing in the 1990s. Initially, when banner advertising was mentioned, it referred to the large ads that were posted on billboards, all over the city. In today's context, banner advertising refers to the posting of an ad on a variety of websites that are visited by a huge number of Internet surfers. The Internet is the perfect market base to attract the global customer. Thus, while the concept remains the same, banner advertising in today's context, is one of the unique web advertising techniques that is used by different companies, to make their product known worldwide. But how effective are banner advertisements? Do they really generate a lot of sales? How can the effectiveness of banner advertising be improved? Find these answers here.

What are Banner Ads?

Banner ads are in many ways similar to the traditional printed advertisements in magazines. However, they do differ in several ways from the traditional mode of advertising. When a banner advertisement is placed on any particular website, a click on the ad directly transports you to the website of the product that is being advertised. This means, you are saved the time of going to a store to purchase the product that has been advertised. Moreover, a banner ad is definitely more attractive than a regular printed ad, because a lot of graphics and animation can be added to it, to make it eye-catching and visually appealing. The location of the ad, however, is limited to one single place. There are, of course, instances of banner advertising where the graphics and animation are simply overdone.

When a customer clicks on a banner ad, he is directed to the website of the product that has been advertised. Banner advertisements are based on the concept of pay per click advertising. This gives the publishing website income every time the ad is clicked, as a customer has been directed to the advertiser's website. Whether or not this click on the ad gets converted into a sale is immaterial. The publishing website will be given a payment, on the basis of the prevalent banner advertising rates. However, banner advertising effectiveness will be determined for the advertising website, only when the click gets converted into a sale.

If the web surfer does not click on the advertisement, the banner ad does try to ensure that the image of the promotional product has been registered, and that the web surfer will sometime in the future, visit the website directly. Then, the effectiveness of banner advertising is measured by the number of times the ad has been clicked, the number of times a visitor has been directed to the advertiser's website, and the ratio of the clicks to the page views. This gives them an exact idea of whether a visitor has been directed by a banner ad, or by some other medium. This rate ranges around only .1% and is rarely higher. Lastly, whether or not a visit to the website through the banner ad was converted to a sale is calculated. This gives an actual measure of the effectiveness of banner advertising.

How Effective is Banner Advertising?

The reality about banner advertising is that because there are so many of them out there on the worldwide web, they are usually ignored by customers. This is because they are usually very annoying, especially those banner ads that enlarge when you visit a page, and when you have to manually close them. Several times, banner ads are linked to pages that are absolutely unrelated to the product that is being advertised. This causes further frustration to the customer. It is thus concluded, that a banner ad, though considered as one of the best Internet advertising techniques, does not generate much revenue in the long run. However, there are still some ways in which the effectiveness of banner ad campaigns can be improved, and used to generate overall sales.

• Target the Right Audience: Place your banner ads on relevant websites. For instance, if you are selling a weight loss product, place the ad on a website related to health and fitness. People are more likely to take your advertisements seriously when they see them at the right place at the right time.
• Keep it Simple: Do not make your banner ads too fancy. You must understand that the loud graphics, the flashing images, and all the animation is extremely frustrating, and no one really has the patience to see and understand what your product is all about. The bottom line is to convey your message in as few words as possible, keep it relevant to the product that is being advertised, and be attractive yet simple. Subtle messages will not be understood in banner ads. Also remember to include your company name and your company logo on the ad. Even if a customer does not click on the ad immediately, the logo will leave an impression, and he will definitely come back to you some time.
• Create Urgency: When you include text like 'limited period offer', or 'offer valid until stocks last', you are more likely to generate sales through banner ads. This gives the customer the idea that the product is indeed limited, and that he should make the most of the time during which it is available.
• Size Matters: Try to use a strategically located larger banner so that it is visible to the customer. It will definitely be more effective than a smaller banner in some corner of a web page. Though this usually depends on the website that publishes your ad, if it is visually appealing, it is bound to win an important spot on the web page.
• Just Clicks Are Not Enough: Banner advertising effectiveness cannot only be measured by the number of clicks on the ad. The mere presence of an ad at all times, gets it registered in the mind of the customer, which may then transform into a sale at some particular time in the future. It is simply a strategy you will have to attempt, so that it eventually converts into a sale.

You may see a lot of figures that tell you that banner ads are actually not very effective, and the conversion rate is very low. However, understand that a banner advertisement is only as effective as you make it. Just like any other form of advertising, banner advertising is based on certain strategies, which when employed in the right manner, can definitely improve the effectiveness of banner advertising.