Everything you need to know about web banners

Online banners are one of the most popular forms of advertising on the internet. This form of advertising has been existing almost for as long as the Web has. In time, banner ads have become very popular and mostly used on the internet marketing.
Online banners went through different stages of improvements and has changed a lot until now. At the beginning banners were a simple image with no animations, no effects - just a simple picture with company's name or logo. However, new technologies made them look much more attractive and now the capabilities of online banners are unlimited.

Usually, web banner is defined as a small area on a web site where a visual material is shown for promotional purposes. There are 3 main types of internet banners:

• Static banner;
• Animated banner;
• Interactive banner.

And we are going to discuss about each type of web banners.

Static banner is a simple fixed-size picture like in the example above. It has no sounds, no animations and no other effects. It just shows a colorful picture with or without text. Most of the time this type of banner ad shows a company logo or a short but memorable phrase. Usually these banners are in GIF or JPEG formats.
The only advantage this type of banner has is it's small file size and formats that are excepted by all browsers. So you can be sure that everyone will be able to see your banner whatever browser they are using.
However these banners allow only a limited space for message comparing to other types of banners. So you must choose the words very carefully.
There are a few main rules for successful static banners:

• Your banner must have a purpose. You have a limited space, so you must use it cleverly so that everyone could understand what you are saying;
• Your message must be easy to understand. People scan through page very quickly and you have only seconds to attract their attention, so user's must easily understand what you want to say;
• It is wise to tell a user what actions he should take. For example: „Click here for more information“;
• Make sure that your banner is attractive. Font, text size and colors must work together to ensure that your banner looks very good.
• Link users exactly to the page you provide info about. Don't make them look for the information, it must be in one place where everyone could see.
• Before posting your banner, try to imagine if you would be interested in this offer. Also you can ask some friends or family members as well, because if they are not attracted then probably most of the audience won't be.

Below is another example showing how attractive even a static banner could be.

An animated banner is a much more advanced type of advertising. New technologies allowed designers to add movement to their banners which helped to attract people's attention much better. Such technologies like Flash and Java allowed to create banners with moving text and changing pictures which catches user's eye more effectively.
Some basic advices everyone should know when creating an animated banner:

• Animation should be attractive and not irritate the user;
• Banner should be attractive for users but it should not clash with web page design you are advertising on;
• The repetition of the same image always starts to irritate people. You should rotate different banners or, for example, have the animation loop for 5-6 times and than show the main message;
• Some people stops a web page from loading and the the animation might not be loaded and visitors will see only first frame. That's why you should have your message in the first frame of your banner.

Some examples of animated banners from our local companies:

• Banner 1
• Banner 2

Interactive banner is a very powerful advertising tool. It allows the owner to implement such tools as sound and video also to use HTML code to make banners able to interact with audience and become even more attractive. Such banners are so popular because it allows to respond to user's actions. For example, it changes color when you rollover with a mouse, or it asks you to enter some information, or even lets you play games.

Interactive banners are divided into 2 types:

• HTML banners;
• Rich media banners;

HTML banner is a combination of text and images. Such banners contain such elements as text boxes or radio buttons. It used to create a test or registration form where user might fill in a form without leaving the web page he is at the moment. These banners have one very important advantage – all browsers support HTML, so you don't need to worry that user won't see you banner.
Here are some examples how these banners look like:

• Banner1
• Banner2

Rich media banners are the most advanced type of banners. It allows the creator almost everything. All you need is just some fantasy. You can use JAVA, Flash, JavaScript, Shockwave and many more technologies. You can add animation, sound, video and many other features. Here are some examples what rich media is capable of:

• Banner1
• Banner2

As always, everything has some advantages and disadvantages. I would like to compare web banners with traditional ads and talk over some pros and cons of such advertising. So firstly let's start with advantages web banners have against traditional ads:

• Quite big amount of information which is always changing could be introduced in a small banner;
• It is much easier to reach targeted audience comparing to, for example, advertising on a TV;
• Lower costs comparing to TV commercials. Advertising on internet has lower CPT (cost per thousand) than advertising on TV.;
• It is much easier to track the results of advertising campaign.

Disadvantages:

• Internet banners are quite small and you can see only hints about products and organizations. If you want to know more you have to click on that banner. But sometimes users don't have time or it just doesn't interest them;
• Advertising on the internet is quite specific. People see banners only if they look for a certain information and there's a very small chance that they will see your banner accidentally like it happens on TV.

• The Company EyeWonder, Inc  introduced a new product called PageMorph on July 8, 2009, which became a new banner format. This kind of ad can easily adapt to the environment and take over all the functions of a webpage, manipulating website's environment. Here is the example of such ad.
• Another very useful banner system was introduced and called live banner. This system allows to use all the techniques interactive banners have, but it has one huge advantage. Live banners have the ability to retrieve external data from web server and use it for marketing opportunities. For example, a live banner can detect the user's location and display the banner in user's native language.

Do not forget that when creating internet banner it is very important to use correct colors. If you want to know more about colors please read my article: Color marketing.