The concept of banner advertising has become one of the best and most efficient tools in online advertising.  Simply put, online banner ads contain texts and animations that aim to attract the user into reading information about a product.

Banner ads are often catchy and attractive because they need to get the attention of the Internet user.  When the said user finds the banner intriguing, chances are he or she will click on the banner.  The banner then links the user to the website of the company.  Banners usually are defined by impressions.  A thousand impressions can be worth 20 to 100 bucks. Not to be confused with impressions is unique visitors, which is basically a browser going navigating several pages of the website. The number of pages that the browser visits is however called multiple page impressions.

There is not much difference however with banner advertising from other traditional forms of advertising.  The specific details of the target audience are always kept in min.  However, in online or banner advertising, identifying specifics of the target market is much easier.  All a marketer has to do is go to a site that is frequented by a specific target market.  For example, a marketer can identify which websites are frequented by teenagers, by young professionals, and so on.  Then the marketer can place an ad in the particular website.

To guide marketers in implementing an efficient banner ad campaign, remember these pointers:

* Do not just place a banner on the front page of a website.  Alternatively, the banner can be place on a sub-link.  This way, interested browsers will actually comprise the website’s impressions. 

* Choose a banner design that is catchy but does not give too much information

*Ideally banner size should be as small as 5K and no larger than 20K.

*Keep it animated.  Banners with animation attract more internet users.

*Use catchy phrases so people will be enticed to click on the link.

Remember that properly designed and placed banner ads will help the business in the long run, especially in driving more traffic to your website.