Is a Banner Ad Campaign Right for me?

Banner Ads have been very popular ever since the Internet has become a household staple. They are a image-based form of advertising that are strategically places on different sites. The purpose of banner advertising is to promote a brand and to drive traffic to the advertiser’s site. Due to their popularity, a lot of companies have tried banner ads at one point or another. However, they may not be the best option for everyone. There are many different types of online advertisements and we have discussed the benefits of some in a past post. Today we will focus on the different approaches to starting a banner ad campaign and their pros and cons.

There are a few options when it comes to implementing a banner ad strategy. You can either enter into an agreement to display other sites’ ads on your site in exchange for them displaying your ad, pay other sites to display your ad, or join a banner network. You would pay the banner network to put your ad on multiple other sites, as well as host ads. We will discuss the different options and their pros and cons.

If you have a lot of friends with businesses or have a good amount of business connections, an exchange with some of them may be ideal. The upside to the exchange is that there is little to no cost to it, which is beneficial if you do not have much capital to put into your banner strategy. You also have full control over where your ad is placed, which ad is on your site and when you want to place the ad. The downside is the amount of work you have to put into making this strategy effective. You need to communicate with every site that your ad is on. You typically will not end up reaching as many people unless you have a large number of exchanges.

The second option is to reach out to other sites and pay them to display your ads. If you have more capital and you are aware of your target market, this may be the best option. This allows you to have control and choose the exact sites that you want your ad to display. If you have a specific target market and you know which sites they visit most often, this would be an effective strategy for your money. The more people in your target market that see your ad, the higher conversion rate you will most likely have. However, this can get very time consuming and costly. Depending on the size of the sites in which you would like to display your ad on, the pricing can be vastly different. This also involves a lot of time and research to ensure that the strategy is working.

The last option would be to join a banner network. Banner network programs will do the work for you when it comes to exchanging banner ads. They will put your ads on other sites in the network and you will also host ads. The advantage of joining a banner exchange program is that it is a free way to get other sites to post your banner ads and it is not nearly as time consuming as the other options. The disadvantage is that you give up a lot of control over where your ads are posted and what ads are posted on your site.

There are distinct differences in the options discussed to help determine which banner strategy would be best for your type of business. There are some additional overarching pros and cons to banner ads no matter which approach you take that we will discuss over the next few paragraphs.

The great thing about banner ads is their visibility. The images or videos embedded in the ads are often eye catching and noticeable. These are especially effective if your brand can be advertised best through images.

The simplicity of setting up banner ads, makes it easy to use trial and error to determine which ads are working best. By using analytic tools, you can see which ads are effective and which ones are not. Also, since it is relatively simple to switch out your banner ads, this gives you the ability to test new ads and alter the messages in them to make your campaign as effective as possible.

Lastly, these ads will help the branding of your product. People are constantly being exposed to the ad and it will only increase their awareness of your product. Even though they may not go to your site at the time they see the ad, they may visit the next time they are in need of a product like yours. The exposure from the banner ads will create brand recognition.

There are a few downsides to using banner ads as well. First off, it is difficult to measure the true number of impressions. The impressions are based on the number of people that visit the site and scroll past your ad. This does not mean they actually read the ad or even give it any of their attention. You can measure the number of click-throughs, but ultimately you are paying for the impressions.

Sometimes there are multiple ads on each page, especially if you are in a banner network, which can cause clutter. Clutter can cause people to lose interest. You are only trying to get them to your site. This can be done simply by explaining your offerings, which can be difficult to convey in banner ads.

The goal of all advertisements is to get consumer attention. However, with the amount of ads consumers are exposed to on a daily basis, there is too much information for them to absorb most of it. There is an advertisement overload, so you need to have a unique enough ad to stand out.

Banner ads may be a perfect solution for you and your business. The first step is to determine which approach would work best for you and your business. After you decide in which direction you want to go, implement a strategy and make sure to benchmark your success.