Banner Advertising: It’s not What You Think

Posted Posted in Banner Design     

Banner Advertising: It’s not What You Think

When people think banner advertising, those irritating little pop up ads that invaded the web during the late 90s and early into 2000 immediately come to mind.

Since then however, banner advertising has evolved into something more professional, sophisticated, and far less intrusive than what it originally gained its negative reputation for.

In the past, banner advertising used a flawed shotgun approach that pumped out millions of ad displays wherever possible.  They were literally about as welcome as snowfall in the middle of July.

After the death of many shadier banner advertising companies, several stronger companies with higher standards governing their ad displays remained standing.  These companies evolved to provide very targeted, regulated, reputable, and relevant advertising for businesses.

Because of more advanced data collection methods, banner advertising now allows you to target your audience by such demographics as age, gender, geographical location, household income, and more.

Banner ads today even look and behave much differently than their ancestors from years ago.  While the old Pop Up is still available, you’re more likely to find banners placed right on the web page in context with content you’re already interested or engaged in reading.  This means that your ad about a special price on Lagostinoâ?¢ Cookware will end up on a site like Recipes.com where it makes sense, not PopularMechanics.com where it does not.

More importantly, you’ll be provided detailed statistics for your advertising which will show you how your campaign is progressing; something that Banner Advertising version 1.0 didn’t offer.  These statistics will help you decide how to restructure and tweak your campaign for maximum effectiveness.

Some banner advertising companies even have learning mechanisms that learn which websites are sending you the most traffic and conversions.  They then remove your ad from sites that don’t perform well and allocate more displays on sites that do.