MediaSlap blog

by Dwight Cook

Banner or display ads can be a very effective way to monetize a website. In many instances, it’s the primary goal of the website design and layout – Build targeted visitor traffic to sell targeted banner advertising.

The most effective type of banner ad includes motion.  How many times have you seen that dancing man and woman while you try to read an article on a page? It does get your attention. Placement on the site is ideal if your ad will display without the visitor having to scroll.  Some sites want to place your ad in a less-than-ideal location at the bottom of a page.

Before your purchase, you should request site stats. Some web sites charge for the number of impressions displayed to visitors while others charge per click on your banner. Cap the cost of your expenditure – There is nothing worse than getting a surprise bill every month.

Get the physical specs for the ad – You want the exact size and acceptable file types. I recommend you use flash, if possible. My second choice is an animated .png or .gif file. This blog does not support posting a flash banner but did support a static .png file as seen above. To see how much movement adds to it’s effectiveness, click on the graphic below, then close close the new page to return here.

As mentioned earlier, movement helps draw attention. I prefer flash, as it looks richer and it supports video, graphics and sound. Sound is another attention getter. If you DO add sound, add a feature to control the volume. Nothing is worse than visiting a loud web page without control. If done right, sound can differentiate you from competing ads.

Always provide a mechanism to link back to your site and include real-time stats to track the effectiveness of the ad “click-through”. Your stats should include referral information. With the right stats, you’ll know what’s most effective and can audit the media bill when received. It’s possible to get this information from Google analytics, which is free, or another program that can deliver similar statistics.

Unless you have a marketing background, know graphics and website programming, please hire a professional to consult with you, design the graphics and program the flash.

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Dwight Cook is President of Sound Works a full-service production company. Sound Works designs and hosts display banner ads and full web sites.  They specialize in creating and producing rich media for the web with video and moving pictures.