Banner Ads: are they Effective?

The cost of banner ads has varied from "free" to thousands of dollars depending on the site the ad is posted to. More recently we have seen the development of Portal sites (all in one) such as Yahoo (www.yahoo.com), altavista (www.altavista.com) or Excite (www.excite.com) where premium prices are charged for banner ads. Over the past few months I have seen more of my screen space obliterated by frames upon frames, each containing banner ads and little space left for my use (visualize hot mail www.hotmail.com). I find the banner ad an annoyance rather than a place to click to.

How effective are banners ads? Opinion varies depending on who you are talking too and if they are selling banner ad space. I would guess "not very". It has been suggested that the decrease of click through on banner ads has occurred because ; 1) poor design doesn't encourage clicking 2) bad experience from following click through in the past has discouraged future visits 3) by clicking on a banner ad continuity of the visitor's is disrupted.

Many surfers are searching for specific items and will not be waylaid by irksome banners unless it offers information specific to their search. Banner ads may be more effective only if they appear on sites focused on interests that are related to the material the visited site offers. Try using a search and look for the niches you are targeting, then offer those sites reasonable remuneration to carry your banner.

Another venue for your banner ads might be E-zines (electronic magazines that are published on the Internet and have a list of subscribers) For most banner ads the most important thing besides the cost of the ad will be the number of subscribers to the magazine. Things to ask for, when selecting an E-zine for your ad are: demographic information, ensure the publication has enjoyed a steady growth in numbers over time, can the circulation numbers be verified by a reliable third party, how long has the magazine been in circulation, ensure it is of good quality. At the moment it appears that E-zine advertising is the most effective form of Internet banner advertising.

An ad's success shouldn't be determined by the number of people that click on it. The number of sales from the ad is the real measure of a banner ad's success. The response rate will be determined by what you can offer, in product or service, to your customer, the type of list or E-zine you have chosen, and the creative effort put into the ad.