There is a lot of talking around banner design and banner advertising. In this article, we will show you how banner advertising works. ย
But first of all, letโs see who has launched the first banner ad and which website hosted it. The fact is that the first banner ad is so popular among all the online advertising tactics that itโs having its own domain called – thefirstbannerad.com.
The first banner ad was launched on October 27 in 1994 on Wired Magazine (then it was called hotwired.com) and it was a simple banner that said “Have you ever clicked your mouse right here? You will” and the banner sent the user to an AT&T campaign.
As FastCompany said in an article:
โAT&T’s wasn’t the only clickable campaign that ran on HotWired that day, but the irony of its message is hard to beat, given that most people today don’t click banner ads.โ
What was the purpose of the first banner ad? As Otto Timmons said โWe saw our ad as kind of a public service announcement” Because that specific banner ad took the user to a microsite on which he could find lists of the top museums and other mind-expanding websites.
The banner advertising industry
But today, the banner advertising world has developed from the web banner ads you see on your favorite publications, to social media ads like Facebook Banners, Instagram Sponsored Ads, Snapchat Geofilters, and other social media ads.
The display advertising spending will decline search ad spending in the US. Online advertising formats as banner ads, video, rich media, and sponsorship will account for the largest share of digital ad spending: 47.9%, worth $32.17Billion. ย
And to make sure we’re speaking the same language, we need to set some things straight about banner advertising and design right from the start.
Let’s begin with the basics:
1. What is banner advertising?
It’s a form of online advertising through banners.ย
Banner advertising is also called display advertising (as opposed to text-only advertising) because of the visual nature of banner ads. The purpose of banner advertising is to promote a brand. The banner ad can take the visitor from the host website to the advertiserโs website or a specific landing page.
You can start a banner advertising campaign for Google Adwords or any other display network and use our banner maker to simplify the process.
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2. What is a banner ad?
A banner ad, or a web banner, is an advertisement displayed on a web page. The advertisement consists of an image (.jpg, .png, .gif) or of a multimedia object (usually created using Flash or HTML5).ย
Thus, banner ads can be static or animated, depending on the technology used to make them.
The static banner ad can be a simple image or a visual that is acting just like an ad but in the digital ecosystem, you can click on it and get to the website or landing page of the advertisement.
Weโve heard ย lots of questions around โWhat is an animated banner ad?โ so we want to help you with an answer:
An animated banner ad (or web banner) is a type of digital advertising that is delivered by an ad server. The purpose is the same as the one for the static banner ad: to get noticed on the website and make the user click on it. ย
Also, you can call the animated ad a programmatically generated display or sequential visual that creates the illusion that the objects in the image are moving.
2. How do web banner ads work?
Banner ads are intended to generate traffic to a website by linking to it. Also, web banners can function as regular, print advertisements: inform, notify about a new product, increase brand awareness and so on. ย
However, most banners are clickable and their main function is to get clicked on. But we’ll talk about banner effectiveness in a few moments.
So, why use banner advertising?
1. Brand awareness – you can grow your brand awareness using banner ads so people can easily recognize your product or service. Brands like IBM, Apple, Target, or Nike use banner ads to grow their business through brand advertising.
2. Lead generator – itโs a great way to build your user base. If you are a SaaS you can use banner ads to get more users to sign up and try your product/service.
3. Retarget your audience – if somebody came on your website but didnโt sign up on your newsletter or didnโt try out your product you can retarget them with banner ads.
Generally, banner ads are placed on high traffic websites that offer interesting or useful content. ย
But, besides traffic, there are other important aspects to be taken into consideration when choosing a website to advertise on. This is why we always recommend you to advertise on the websites that are in your industry’s niche. ย
One of these aspects is the website’s target, which has to more or less match with the banner’s intended audience.
3. Why is banner advertising effective?
One advantage of online advertising over the traditional one is that its effectiveness can be easily measured. Regarding banner ads, the main effectiveness indicator is the click-through rate. The click-through rate (CTR) is calculated by dividing the number of users who clicked on the ad by the number of times the ad was displayed (impressions).ย
For instance, one might say that a certain ad has a click-through rate of 3%. That means that out of 100 impressions delivered, the banner was clicked on three times.
Therefore, the higher the CTR is, the more effective the advertisement is. It’s that simple.
4. Standard banner sizes for advertising
When you browse across the Internet it’s likely for you to encounter all kinds of banners in all kinds of sizes. Lucky for us, there are some standards too. And their role is to reduce the amount of work for agencies when faced with the problem of creating many banners and similar sizes for different publishers.ย
And here is where the IAB standards come into play. But we’ll talk more about ad standards in a future post.ย
Check the list below with the banner ad standard size:
Ad size | Name | Where itโs featured | Supply |
300ร250 | Medium Rectangle | Embedded within or at the end of articles | Good inventory |
336ร280 | Large Rectangle | Embedded within or at the end of articles | Good inventory |
728ร90 | Leaderboard | Placed on top or inserted in an article | Good inventory |
300ร600 | Half Page | Featured in the right or left-hand side | Growing inventory |
468ร60 | Banner | Featured in small spaces inside or on the left in articles | Limited, declining inventory |
234ร60 | Half Banner | Featured in small spaces inside or on the left in articles | Limited, declining inventory |
120ร600 | Skyscraper | Featured in websites sidebars | Limited inventory |
160ร600 | Wide Skyscraper | Featured in websites sidebars | Good inventory |
970ร90 | Wide Skyscraper | Top of website pages | Limited inventory |
200ร200 | Small Square | Usually featured in the right-hand sidebar | Limited inventory |
250ร250 | Square | Usually featured in the right-hand sidebar | Limited inventory |
5. How to create a banner for advertising
Easy! You donโt have to be a professional designer to design a banner ad. You can create static or animated banner ads with Bannersnack, without any coding skills. The best part is that anybody can create banners: all you need is a computer with an internet connection. You can log in with Facebook, Twitter, or your email.
But there are a few simple principles you have to make sure that you understand while you design a banner ad:
1. Who is your main target and what do you want from them? Before you design a banner ad you need to know who is your core audience and what you want from them. Maybe you want them to click on your website, or to buy your limited sale product, or to try your service for free. Think about that!
2. What is your value proposition? This will help you write the text of your banner and also choose a good CTA button text.
3. Choose a Standard web banner ad size – Because the publishers are usually using the standard banner ad sizes on their websites. So, if you pick another size you limit the reach of your banner ad campaigns.
4. Use readable fonts – You want the user to understand what you want to offer and what he can get if he will click your banner ad.ย
5. Use high-quality photos – Very low-quality photos and images used in a banner ad can create mistrust between the brand and the user. 54% of users don’t click banner ads because they don’t trust them.
6. Use your brand colors – If you want to create professional banner ads and you want people to recognize your brand on the internet I recommend you to stay close to your brand color.
7. Donโt overcrowd your banner ad – The simpler the banner ad is the easier you can communicate the right message to your audience.
8. Donโt forget to use a branding element (logo, company name, or website) – It doesnโt matter how big you are in your industry, you need to use one of your branding elements to show the user that your company is behind that banner ad.
6. How do I advertise my banner?
After you create the banner, you need some webspace to use it on, so you will need to buy ad space on websites. Contacting blog and website owners and negotiating with them individually can be stressful and time-consuming, so most people choose an advertising network to help them distribute their ads.
Some of these advertising networks are Google Adwords, IAB., AOL Advertising, Right Media, BuyAds.com, OpenX. Each of these has certain standards, so you should make sure that your banners comply with their regulations before you start creating the ads.
This way, you won’t have to edit the banner again.
Bannersnack banners are compatible with all of these ad networks.
7. How to start banner advertising?
It doesnโt matter what kind of advertising do you want to do, there are a few principles you must stick to it so that you can have an effective banner ad campaign.
The thing that I love about banner advertising is that itโs all about visual advertising. The visuals (photo, videos) go beyond text advertising and you can easily use buttons, colors, images, text, or even animations to create an easy-to-understand message.
So, what are the principles that will help you start in banner advertising?
1. What do you want from your campaign – Think about your product/service and see whatโs the specific idea you can build your campaign on.
2. Determine your budget – Advertising is something you pay to show and banner advertising is the same. You need to know how much money you want to invest in this banner ad campaign.
3. Who is your audience – Understanding who you want to advertise to will help you create a better banner ad campaign. Because you will know their needs and you will know how to design the banner ad to get noticed by them.
Conclusion
Banner advertising can be a real deal for your business if you know how to optimize it and get the best out of it. There are brands like Airbnb, Wall-Mart, or Time Magazine that use banner advertising and see an increase in their business.
Here are a few ideas and tactics that will help you understand how banner advertising works.
Now back to you, let us know in the comment section below what are your biggest struggles when it comes to launching your banner ad campaign!
Carl Carlsson
April 6, 2015Thanks for giving some basic benefits of banner advertisement, I have recently started advertising campaign for my business with รฅKOMPANI( http://akompani.se/ ) and I am quite satisfied. I am impressed with your ideas of banner advertisement, will definitely consider. Thanks once again, keep posting.
Ryan Bolton
May 27, 2015Thanks for sharing these benefit of advertising work here. I really impressed with this post. Denititely your post will get a huge success. Keep posting.
Abdulrahman Hawari
July 22, 2015Thank you. I really want to people who learn how banner works to be clickable and success.
Zahra
July 22, 2015I agree, all banner will be more views
sam
December 3, 2015good but creepy
Tracy Holland
March 30, 2016Your knowledge on display banners was very helpful and thoroughly provided me clarity on some confusing information I received about Display/Web Banner Advertising. Thanks and keep up the good work!
Robert Katai
April 1, 2016@Tracy – You welcome. If you need any help about display ads and banner ads, let us know!
Michael Richardson
July 1, 2016Informative article,,
Banners are really a good and cheap way to promote your site as well as your business. As banners are cheap in cost and easy to use.
Paula Las Vegas
August 16, 2016Thank you for giving so much benefits of banner advertisement, I can start now a new advertising campaign for my loan business!
Minna
September 11, 2016Thanks for sharing your thoughts about banner ads.
Regards
Suresh Kumar Goud
October 23, 2016It’s very good opportunity to learn banner ads .
Hussain
December 21, 2016Great article! Thank you so much.
Scott
April 29, 2017Web Banner is an essential need for every website. I was really Upset and discouraged when i was getting good content for my website but lack of readers because there is no good quality designs to attract the readers to continue to stay to read more articles on my website. Not until i found an agent https://goo.gl/W11wVZ who provides me with real stocked quality web banner ads designs, to promote my website and other advertising products services i render https://goo.gl/W11wVZ .
Now I write with passion and advertise my website and product on a quality design with ease, because i know i have audience who will be reading. what a joy in my heart. I have been using his designs for my website banner ads for sometime now and he is the best so far.
dan
May 16, 2017Hi, does anyone know what is prohibited in-banner traffic?
Justin
May 31, 2017The trick is to make your banner ad irresistible to customers who see it. In a more cynical digital age that can seem difficult, but really all you need are some tips on creating a more effective banner ad for your business. Here they are. https://coastalmediabrand.com
Mariella Bacalanmo
June 14, 2017Splendid article! A fervid thank you for sharing your thoughts about banner advertisements. They are indeed the one that would catch the attention of the customers. “Give them the reason to click!”, they say. It should be simple yet presentable. I know a firm that makes magnificent banner ads at a very affordable price, please check this out, here’s the link: http://pixelprint.design/.
Kathleen
August 18, 2017I would like to thnkx for the efforts you’ve put in writing this website.
I am hoping the same high-grade site post from you in the upcoming as well.
Actually your creative writing abilities has encouraged me to get my own website now.
Actually the blogging is spreading its wings quickly. Your
write up is a good example of it.
Oana
August 25, 2017Thank you, Kathleen! Good luck with your website! – Oana
Bidsopt
August 28, 2017Thanks for sharing this article. It is very useful to us
Mobile Advertising
Gayla Taylor
September 17, 2017very useful content, thanks for sharing this information.
Robert Katai
September 18, 2017You are welcome Gayla
Hunt Fish Ads
December 18, 2017Banner (Display) Advertising can be and is very effective when giving the viewer (website visitor) something that is relevant for them to interact with. So, if you’re using banner ads to showcase your online show store – providing images of shoes and pricing is often effective usage of your banner ad space and often times results in engagement.
Brian Hassanali
January 17, 2018Can I get some help to set up a Banner
Gary
February 21, 2018Now that I have a banner ad created where can I host it at. In other words, where do I park it at? It is not going on a website and is intended to be displayed across Book review sites, with a link that directs them to my Amazon Book sales page.
Robert Katai
February 22, 2018Hello Gary,
If you want the banners to be displayed on several websites to promote your Amazon Book sales page, here are a few things you can do:
1. You can start a display ad campaign with Google Adwords
2. You can start a Facebook ad campaign
3. Talk with the owners of the website and ask them if they let you put your banner on their website
Hope this helped!