Surf the Internet and you will see a fair share of banner ads. A banner ad is a box containing text, images or animations with a hyperlink that leads to a specific page of a website. Banner ads are the most popular form of online advertising.
Banner ads are somewhat similar to a traditional display ad you would see in advertising channels such as newspapers and magazines, in terms of their graphic element. However, they are different from the print ads in that they contain HTML code for directing potential customers to the advertiser's website at the click of a mouse. A banner advertisement also differs from a traditional print ad in that it is more dynamic. Online banners can be static or dynamic, in fact in most cases they are dynamic in the sense that they can contain multiple images and text that keeps changing in a number of ways.

Different types of banner advertisements
Banner advertising, as already stated, is the most important type of online or internet advertising. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has specified eight different banner sizes, with each size depending on the pixel dimensions. These standard sizes are:

Full banner: 486 x 60 Pixels
Full banner with vertical navigation bar: 392 x72 Pixels
Half banner: 234 x60 Pixels
Vertical banner: 120 x 240 Pixels
Square button: 125 x125 Pixels
Button 1: 120 x60 Pixels
Button 2: 120 x60 Pixels
Microbutton: 88 x 31 Pixels

Apart from these standard sizes, you will see all variations on the websites. It is important to point out that these banners can increase the load time of a web page and so most websites impose their own limits.

Banners can further be classified as GIF banners, GIF-animated banners and media rich banners. The GIF or JPEG banners are static banners featuring only one image. The GIF-animated banner ad, usually have different images in succession, to create an animated effect. The rich media banner ads use audio, video, or Java and Shockwave programming. It goes without saying that the rich media banners have larger sizes. Their function also goes beyond simply linking the banner to a website page.

Objectives of banner advertisements

A banner ad performs two functions. The first is that the banner advertisement serves to draw customers to the advertiser's website for a potential sale. Apart from this, there is another powerful function of a banner and that is to strengthen brand awareness. An advertiser also places a banner ad in the hope that even if people are not interested in buying a product at that moment of time, they would register the content in their minds for future use. This is why a lot of importance is given to the content and graphics of a banner advertisement. The message and the graphics should be powerful and attractive enough to register in the readers' memories.

Repeat advertising can make a lot of difference in creating or strengthening brand awareness. For example, you may see an advertisement on a particular brand of glue but may not be interested in buying it at that moment of time. However, if you keep seeing the ad again and again, it will automatically register in your mind so that next time you go to a store, you will in all probability ask for that particular brand of glue, and sometimes for the simple reason that is the only name you are familiar with. This is one of the powers of repeat banner advertising.

Guide to creating a banner advertisement

A good banner ad should have the right combination of content and graphic images with a specific call to action.

Content for banner advertisement

Content of the banner ad should be concise and precise. The most effective banners are the animated type, which means the screen keeps changing with images and text. Given that these frames keep changing at very small intervals, the content should convey the maximum information using the minimum possible words. Otherwise the frame may change even before the user has read the message. Avoid cluttering the banner with too much text and graphics. As a thumb rule, the content should act as a pointer to the benefits of a product or service rather providing a detail of the offering in question. For example, buy branded kids shoes at 20% discount should be more than enough as content for the banner, atleast for one frame. For more information about the shoes, the potential clients can be invited to click on the banner. More description of the shoes can be given on the landing page. Another point to keep in mind is that since user is reading changing frames, the font should be legible and bold.

Specifying the call to action in banner ads

The most important aspect on internet advertising is that it is interactive by nature and online banner advertising works on this very principle. Touch a print ad in a newspaper or magazine and you will not be transferred to the advertiser's store. But this is precisely what happens in case of banner advertising. Once the users click on the banner ad, they will be linked to the online store.

Banner ads should always have a call to action, such as 'click here' to motivate the reader to make a response. There are people who feel otherwise. They reason that if the users read the text and are interested in the product or service advertised, they will automatically click on the ad. However, studies show that call to action phrases such as, click here, have a deep psychological impact on the people and prompt them to perform an action.

Online advertising has overtaken TV advertising, as per the report by the Internet Advertising Bureau, and has emerged as the leading advertising medium in the UK. One reason for this is that internet advertising is very interactive by nature. TV ads do not close as many sales as online advertising ads such as banner ads because there is no immediate call for action which consumers can respond to immediately in case of TV and other advertising channels. All other forms of advertising, other than internet advertising, are passive by nature.

Choosing between different banner types

As already stated above, there are three different types of banners, static, animated and audio visual banners. So which one to choose? All banner types have their uses, however the most popular form is the GIF-animated banner. This is because an animated banner attracts more attention than a static banner. As a natural extension, a media rich banner should attract more attention given its audio, visual properties, but you also have to keep in mind that these banners add to the space of the pages they appear on, and therefore increase the page loading time in the browser. Studies have shown that if a page takes too long to open, the users are more likely to move away to another site. Audio visual banners should be used when their function is more than simply linking the banner to the advertiser's web page.