Guide to Advertising with Banner Ads

Help your business boom with an effective, Internet-based ad campaign

By Matt Alderton

1. Build brand awareness.
2. Boost Web site traffic.
3. Generate sales leads.

Action Steps
The best contacts and resources to help you get it done

Conceive your campaign

Banner ads are worth testing if you want to sell a low-end product to impulse buyers or if you want to develop brand awareness for higher-end services. Research the benefits of banners to decide if they're the right medium for your message.

I recommend: Learn everything you need to know about banner ads — including what to sell with them and to whom — by reading Scott Covert's "The Banner Advertising Traffic Machine," which outlines a campaign that Covert promises will deliver up to 15 times higher click-through rates.

Write your ad

A banner should read like a billboard: short and sweet. Keep text simple and always include a call to action so that prospects don't just click, they buy.

I recommend: Google AdWords publishes a set of Editorial Guidelines that serve as best practices for writing online ad copy. They include everything from grammar and style to recommendations for length, keywords and content.

Design your ad

The best way to grab consumers' attention is with stellar graphics and rich media, such as animation, sound and interactive effects. The more attractive an ad is, the more memorable its message will be.

I recommend: Flash Banner Now offers an easy-to-use, Web-based Flash banner maker that helps you create, download and publish your ad. BannersOnline.com, BannerServer.com and Hey! Banner Banner! offer similar services.

Choose the right real estate

A successful banner speaks to the right people in the right places so use banner advertising on smaller sites with specialized content.

I recommend: Microsoft Banner Advertising and Yahoo! Advertising offer banner ad packages to create and distribute your ad. Both offer access to targeted segments within large banner advertising networks to make placing your ad easy and convenient.

Purchase ad space

Banner ads performance is measured in impressions (the number of times an ad is seen) and sold at a cost per thousand impressions (CPM for short). The average price for a banner ad is between $20 and $100 CPM. The size of both your ad and your audience can affect its price.

I recommend: To calculate the cost of your individual banner campaign, use the CPM Calculator from ClickZ Network.

Look for results

Is your banner working? To find out, you'll need software to monitor impression and click-through rates, and a system for measuring conversions, or the number of click-throughs that result in a purchase.

I recommend: Track the success of your online marketing campaigns with Web analytics software, such as OneStat AdWorks and WebTrends Small Business.

Helpful advice for making the most of this Guide

• •  Banners should only be one part of your online advertising campaign. Combine them with e-newsletters, search engine advertising and search engine optimization for maximum effect.
• •  Link to the correct page on your Web site; linking to a page that is irrelevant or out-of-date can spell disaster.
• •  Keep your ad's file size low so that it loads quickly and easily on prospects' computers.