They are to the Internet what commercials are to your TV...and more. You may have heard the term “banner ad” floating around the Net. Not sure of what to make of them? Here's a brief overview. 

A banner ad is an advertisement that appears on a Web site or group of sites. The oblong advertisement is linked back to the company’s own Web site, so if a browser sees the banner ad and is interested in the product or service, they can click on the ad to be taken directly to the Web site. In this way, it is possible to expose your company’s services to the clientele of a particular Web site or group of Web sites, much like advertising on TV or in a magazine. 

Recently, surveys are reporting that companies are using online advertising to increase traffic to their site, rather than build brand equity--which is the main purpose of traditional advertising. A good banner ad, however, should do both--catch the surfer’s attention and give a good impression of the company’s product and services. 

One problem with banner advertising is that it is very difficult to reach a specific target audience, particularly if you don't know a lot about the viewing audience of a particular site. Therefore, a lot of your advertising dollar can be wasted on people who view your ad but have no interest in your product or service. It is important, therefore, that you carefully choose your ad placement in order to make your advertising dollars more effective. 

One relatively inexpensive way you can test the results of banner advertising for your company is to run a test campaign. Companies such as LinkExchange (www.linkexchange.com) offer packages to place your banner ad on a group of Web sites, called an ad network. You can choose to broadcast your ad over the entire network or target your efforts by choosing to place your ad on Web sites with specific content or themes, such as sports, home & family, or money & finance. Other test campaigns available through LinkExchange include advertising on search engines such as Yahoo! or Excite. These programs allow you to choose where you would like to place your banner ads to better reach browsers interested in your product. 

If you choose to advertise in areas such as Link Exchange, you will be required to provide a banner ad to the company. This ad will then be displayed a specified number of times. Note you pay by the amount of times your ad is shown not whether the surfer has clicked on it or not. 

These test campaigns cost between $50US and $2000US and will let you know whether your banner ad program is going to work for you or if it needs to be changed to target a better audience. Most companies offer statistics on site traffic, and although any results you see in a test campaign will likely be minimal, they should indicate whether or not you are on the right track. 

If the results indicate that banner ads are a good way for your business to advertise, you may decide to design a larger campaign. At this point you will have to analyze which target market you wish to reach with your banner ads, which Web sites draw your target market, and which of these sites have banner ad programs. At this point, you can contact the appropriate sales manager directly. 

There is expected to be a huge growth in online advertising by the year 2002. This growth is not expected to be at the expense of traditional media, but more as a focus on sponsorship deals, marketing partnerships, and integrated marketing campaigns. (www.nua.ie/surveys/index.cgi). In certain cases online advertising can be a vital addition to your marketing strategy.

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