Where to purchase banner advertising space. Learn how and where to purchase banner ads on search engines, directories, and industry-related web sites.

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Banner ads and screen real estate

Banner design is not as simple as coming up with eye-catching, innovative designs and placing them on targeted web sites. Effective banner designers and media buyers always evaluate the web sites on which banners will be displayed before creating a series of ads.

In many instances, so much information clutters a web page that purchasing advertising space can be a waste of time and money. The banner can get lost in the clutter and your target audience will ignore the brand and/or the sales message.

Banners and screen space
Inspect all web pages
Designing your banner ad

Banners and screen space

Many sites display a series of button banners (120 x 60 pixels) or micro banners (88 x 61 pixels) along the left or right edge of a web page. If you can view these banners on the top part of your screen without having to scroll, and if there aren't a large number of these banners on a single page, purchasing a small banner in this space can give a good return on investment (ROI) and branding opportunities.

However, if the web site displays 10 banners down the side of the page and all 10 banners have different animation effects, the resulting page can look cluttered, and the viewing audience will just ignore the whole series of banner advertisements.

Before purchasing ad space on a web site, take the following items into consideration:

Inspect all web pages

Ask yourself what other elements on the page will compete with your banner ad if you decide to advertise.

Other advertisements
Ads can come from your competitors or ads might come from the same company selling the ad space. Regardless, all ads are competing for the same audience attention and your ad must be able to capture the audience's interest from all the other advertisements.

Many web sites offer multiple slots where banner space can be purchased: top (generally the most expensive), down the left or right side, and bottom. If a banner ad is not placed on the top part of the screen, it is less likely to be noticed.

Even a skyscraper ad — a very long vertical banner ad occupying the side of a page — probably will never start at the very top of the page; sometimes users must scroll to see it.

If you have the budget, you are still better off purchasing a banner that runs across the top of the page.

Page content
When people visit web sites, they're not likely to be searching for your banner ad, but they might be searching for your product or service.

To be effective, your banner ad must offer some kind of incentive for end users to stop what they're doing — performing a search, reading an article, or comparison shopping — and click on the banner to visit your web site. In other words, your banner is competing with web page content for audience attention.

One of the best decisions a media buyer can make, particularly with click-through banners, is to purchase banners on sites with similar, noncompetitive content. The banner's message can entice the audience by offering an answer not available on the site.

A good example of this type of message is a banner placed in a search engine or directory. Most people using search engines are performing specific searches. If you purchase banner space on search results pages your banner ad might provide the answer to the search.

White space
Look for advertising space that includes a certain amount of open space, or white space, around it. If your ad is to be placed next to content, consider making your banner ad less cluttered with its own graphics and content.

Designing your banner ad

If the screen real estate is not too cluttered, ask yourself how you can use your banner ad to catch a potential customer's attention.

Evaluate the colors on the web page on which you are purchasing space. Are you better off matching the colors of your banner with the colors of the site? You might not want your banner to communicate "blatant advertisement." Matching some of the colors in your banner can take off the edge.

Or can you create a banner that uses different colors to catch peoples' eyes? High-contrast, bright colors for your banner background work well for attracting attention.

Using a font or a typeface with bold or different lettering is another effective method to capture attention.

Be careful with your choice of fonts, though. Serif fonts (typefaces with lines capping the tops and bottoms of each letter, such as Times New Roman) can be hard to read at smaller sizes. For smaller ads and smaller type, you may be better off with a sans-serif font such as Arial, Helvetica, Futura or Verdana.

Rich media can improve a banner provided it serves a purpose. Basic but effective forms of rich media could include a drop-down menu, which, when clicked, expands outside the original banner size, multiple links within the same banner, or a pop-up interactive window that can handle transactions without requiring the user to leave the original site.

It might seem like a lot of extra work on top of all your other marketing tasks, but remember that casual ad placement is bad for the bottom line. It really is worth your while to spend a little time evaluating a fit before investing in ad real estate.

If you have any specific questions about our banner design tips, or if you would like permission to republish this banner design tip on your web site or newsletter, please use our contact form or email us at info@grantasticdesigns.com.

Banner ads and screen real estate

Banners and screen space

Inspect all web pages

Designing your banner ad

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