Banner Ads: The Good, the Bad and the Ugly
Author: Ari Ozick

Ask anybody what they consider to be the most prevalent form of legitimate advertising on the Net, and I guarantee you the answer will be banner ads. There's good reason for this, too. After e-mail, Web browsing is probably the most performed activity on the Internet today. Wherever the most people can be reached, that's where most advertisers will be found.

Hopefully, a light bulb should be going off in your head right now. A good marketer knows he doesn't want to reach the biggest percentage of the audience. He only wants to reach the biggest percentage of the audience that will buy his product and his services. There's no point in spending all that money and trying to reach out to those who just plain aren't interested.

So if we take a closer look, we reach an obvious question: "Is banner advertising worth investing in?" The answer is yes and no. On the surface, it would there's no point to banner advertising anymore. In reality, banner advertising, like any other form of advertising, can produce results, if it's used correctly.

I imagine there's another question popping up into your heads: "Gee, thanks, Ari. But how do we use banner advertising correctly?" I admit, it's a legitimate question, but I've come up with a couple of simple steps to maximize the effect of any banner advertising campaign.

1.                   Target, Target, Target            Like any marketing campaign, you must know whom you are trying to attract. This applies even more to the Internet. Studies show that Internet users have short attention spans. You want to put your banner in a place where someone is already looking for information related to your product or service. For instance, if you sell cat food, don't blow your budget on a general rotation on Yahoo! It may get you exposure, but it won't get you sales. Instead, find a site devoted to cats (or at least pets in general) and find out about advertising on the site. Not only will you stay within budget (you have a marketing budget, right?), you'll get much more bang for your buck.

2.                   Make Your Banner Attractive When you run a banner, make it so effective and attractive that the user really wants to click on it. Remember what we said about short attention spans? Internet users in general hate banner ads. If they see something that piques their interest, however, they will click on it. Unless you have top-notch graphic design skills, I recommend finding a graphic or Web design firm to do it for you. Never, ever, skimp on your advertising material.

3.                   Don't Just Use Banner Ads      Whatever you do, don't just advertise using banner ads. There are other ways to reach the customer. You can use permission e-mail, using a firm like PostMasterDirect.com, which allows you to send solicitations to people who have asked to receive them. Advertise in other Internet medium. Post to newsgroups, participate in discussion lists or run a newsletter. There are many ways to advertise and market, and each requires it's own article, possibly even a book. For more information, I recommend the Guerilla Marketing Series (http://www.gmarketing.com).

4.                   Measure Response      Make sure you can measure the number of click throughs generated by your ads. Most Web sites have software that allows you to track your results. Replace lower performing ads with better performing ones. Try and figure out why certain ads perform better than others. Use this information to improve your campaign, and generate more sales.

These four steps are not a guarantee that you'll make untold riches from banner ads. What they will do is streamline your campaign, and help you avoid mistakes you may have otherwise made, saving yourself lots of money, and more importantly, time.