Banner Advertisement

Banner advertising in recent years has seen significant declines with click-through rates and seems to be phasing out as a popular option for businesses and companies alike to use in their marketing.  However, banner ads are still very much a viable option when done with the right approaches and implemented correctly. SmartNet knows how to incorporate banner ads into your marketing mix to produce the types of results you are looking for.

This advertising strategy is constantly evolving and includes many of the following terms:

• Hits
  The term “hits” can sometimes be very deceiving.  A “hit” can be defined by the amount of times a webserver has had a request from a webpage or graphic image.  Usually a large amount of “hits” are from graphic images, blurring the true amount of requests to view a webpage.  The more proper terms to use are “views”, “page views”, or what professionals refer to as “impressions”.
• Page Impressions or Page Views
  Refers to the number of times a page is loaded by a browser
• Banner Views or impressions
  Similar to “page views”, these terms refer to the amount of times a banner has been viewed.  Sometimes these viewings are not counted if the visitor doesn’t stay long enough on the page for the banner to completely load.  
• CPM
  CPM means “Cost Per Thousand” and refers to print advertising.  A $10 CPM price means $10 is gained for every one thousand times a banner is viewed.
• Banner Ad
  Banner Ads are banners that are hyperlinked to the URL of the advertiser.  The Internet Advertising Bureau has standardized the size of ads, with recommended sizes being 300X250 pixels for a medium banner, 180X150 for a rectangle, 728X90 for a leaderboard, and 160X600 for a wide skyscraper.  Unfortunately, many ads do not seem to follow these guidelines very closely.
• Clicks, Click Throughs, and Click Through Rate (CTR)
  A click is when a visitor clicks on a banner ad, and a click through is when the visitor is transferred to the advertiser’s website through a hyperlink in that ad.  CTR is an indicator of how many people were transferred to the advertiser’s website by clicking on the banner.  This is measured in percentages; meaning 2% for 1000 banner views would indicate 20 visitors were transferred to the site.    
• Conversion Rate
  Conversion rates are an indicator of how many visitors actually followed through with a purchase on your website.  Increasing conversion rates leads directly to increased sales revenues.
• Cookies
  Cookies are small files that are written to your computer that help advertisers to remember if you’ve already seen an ad or visited a website, allowing advertisements to be tracked and modified.  Cookies are controversial because they allow advertisers to show you ads you may be interested in based on your previous click throughs and record your online activity to an extent.


• Run of Site (ROS)
  Refers to displaying a banner ad throughout a website or a banner network with no targeting by keyword or site category. Run of site advertising will probably cost less than more targeted advertising.

How Do You Measure Success?

Advertising is hard to measure because it involves multiple methods that are all interpreted in various ways.  Ad agencies, advertisers, and banner ad designers all measure the success in different terms.  The following are common terms that are used among these different groups:

• Click Through Rate (CTR)
  This is a basic measure of how effective an ad is. CTRs range from the industry average of about 0.20% to as high as 5% or 10%. As a general rule, the more targeted the site, the higher the CTR.
• Cost Per Sale
  Cost per sale is usually determined by using cookies, tracking which ads had the highest CTR and how many visitors actually followed through with a purchase. Ad software, with the most popular choice being Google Analytics, usually helps to sort this information out and present it in an easy, understandable way.
• Branding
  Banner ads have the ability to “brand” your company, meaning when people see your business, products or services they associate something with it.  For example, a flower store may want to brand themselves as being known for having the freshest, customized bouquets made daily. 

As part of graphic design or flash design, SmartNet specializes in banner ad creations (banner design). A great banner design can give your company or website a professional and unique look. Whether it be a static banner, an animated .gif banner or an animated flash banner, SmartNet will help you figure out which will suit your needs.