Banner advertising, also known as display advertising, is a form of online advertising that involves embedding an ad on a web page. It is intended to drive traffic to a website through a link to the advertiser's website. This type of advertising is usually placed in high-visibility areas on high-traffic websites. In many cases, banners are delivered through a central ad server.
This retrieval system is often how the content provider can pay for Internet access to supply the content in the first place. However, advertisers typically use ad networks to serve their ads, resulting in a profit-sharing system and higher quality of service. The concept of banner advertising was invented by Bruce Judson, then CEO of Time Inc. New Media.
Immediately, Madison Avenue decided to hire a lot of young people to understand this new form of advertising. Banner ads are usually at the top or bottom of a website or vertically along the side of a website, next to the main content. They are intended to drive traffic to your website by linking to it and, from there, you try to close the deal. Banner ads come in different sizes and shapes.
The Internet Advertising Office (IAB) has set standard sizes for these ads. When you browse the Internet, you're likely to find all kinds of banners in all kinds of sizes. Facebook banners are image-based ads in the right column of user feeds, while Audience Network ads are displayed on third-party sites at the top or bottom of the screen, usually above or below the header or footer. You can also pay websites to place banner ads for your business on sites related to other people.
The average click-through rate (CTR) of a banner ad is around 0.5%, which is very low compared to paid search ads of 3.2%, such as Google Ads. Push advertising includes email campaigns, interstitial ads, pre-roll video ads, and banner ads. Banner advertising can be a real deal for your business if you know how to optimize it and get the most out of it. Brands such as IBM, Apple, Target or Nike use banners to grow their business through brand advertising.
SEM (search engine marketing) has become more advanced with new techniques that allow marketers to target their banners by location and behavior. Banner ads can be used in PPC (pay-per-click), however they refer to a specific type of ad - a display ad - rather than a text ad. Each type has certain standards so you need to make sure that your banners comply with their regulations before you start creating ads.
