Hi all

Just wondering what everyones experience was with banner ads and their success. Has anyone changed one particular thing and found it made all the difference?

I work at a youth social website with thousands of members and am looking to crack the American market and need to know all the positives+negatives/ pros+cons/ dos+donts to create the ultimate, in your face and successful banner ads.

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

psi42

My advice: Don't.

Nobody likes banner ads. Seeing a banner ad representing your company will not make people want to buy your product. On the contrary, the exact opposite is likely to happen.

LTheobald

I'm agreeing with PSI. After all - how many times have you clicked on an ad banner. Concentrate on things like getting on top of search engines. Also, there'll be several books on promoting your website in your local library. Might be worth giving one of those a read.

With banner ads, "in your face" and "successful" never belong in the same sentence. E.g. The Jamster banners - very in your face but very annoying. Those ads probably only attract little kids.

fredg

Hi,
I think any kind of advertising is good for your product or getting out a message., even banner ads; but not the type that is constantly flashing; very annoying.
It is said, by Paul Harvey on the radio, that it won't be long before 75% of what you see on TV will be commercials. It is very close to that now!!
So, advertising does work, as many companies as spending more and more money on it.
A Banner Ad, not flashing, with wording different from "Life Insurance", "Mortages", "Auto Insurance", might attract attention; especially if it has the words "Youths", "Children", or anything pertaining to the well being of children.

ScottGem

There is such a thing as bad advertising. As PSI said, bad advertising is likely to backfire.

WEB site ads are clearly becoming more acceptable as evidenced by the amount of money being spent on them. But the more successful web site ads are the targeted ones. Look at the ads on this site (which uses Google). The ads change and usually bear on what category you are looking at. Obtrusive banners turn people off. Simple ads that mesh with a surfers interests are what is more successful.

fredg

Hi,
I must reply again, to disagree with ScottGem. Here is a link, using Trends and Statistics, showing Banner Ads are effective.
http://www.clickz.com/stats/sectors/...cle.php/154501

I am sure there are many, many links available on the web with statistics showing they are effective; this is only one.
There are also others, one by Microsoft, giving tips on how to set up the most effective banner ads, using "power words", etc.

NeedKarma

The site you referenced is an online marketing website. They would have a vested interest in promoting .. um .. online marketing of any sort. A more neutral report would be interesting to see but hard to find.

ScottGem

As Need pointed out, this article is tainted because it comes from a site and is based on a survey done by organizations with a vested interest in promoting online advertising.

But even if you accept the findings as valid. What does it say? It only shows that 40% of respondents remembered a brand based on seeing an ad. Brand recognition is all well and good, but its the least important factor in online marketing. What counts is click throughs.

I remember the brands of many products I've seen advertised in various media. Some of them I remember as being rather stupid and turning me off to the product. I remember the brand, but what good does that do the advertiser?

fredg

Hi,
"I remember the brand, but what good does that do the advertiser?"
The above is quoted from ScottGem's response above this post.
If you remember the brand, Scott, then the advertiser got across his point.
The one main major reason for advertising is for you to remember the brand!
With the brand name in the back of your mind, you will possibly use that brand to buy when, later on, you are looking for a particular product.
The reason for saying a brand name in a TV commercial, over and over and over and over, in a 1 minute slot, is for you to remember the brand. Whether you like the brand, or how it's presented to you, is not as important to advertising, as to just simply remembering the brand name. Even if an advertisement "turns you off", you will still remember the name., thereby, possibly buying it later.
Banner ads have increased tremendously since 2003, evident by web research, with Google and Yahoo making millions off of the advertising. Now, do you really think these ads aren't working? with their major purpose?
If so, there are really many CEO's out there who don't know what they are doing, spending all this money on advertising with Banner Ads. I seriously doubt these companies and corporations are spending all their money, continuously, without results from their advertising.....

ScottGem

I added the bolding above. If you believe that, then you don't understand marketing. It is true that brand recognition is an important part of advertising. But that recognition has to be favorable. What good does remembering the brand do if it doesn't induce me to buy? What good does it do if I deliberately avoid a product because of its advertising?

Yes Google and Yahoo are making millions off advertising, but not primarily from banner ads. Most of the advertising is for targetted marketing. Do a Google or Yahoo search, for example search on MP3 players. What happens is the top hits are vendors of such players. The sidebar will list vendors of such players. Vendors will be highlighted. The reason for those highlights is advertising dollars. The sites that come up for such searches pay big money to float to the top. The dot.com bust came about because companies believed they could give free content that would be subsidized by advertising. But the advertising didn't work. Companies were not seeing a return on their ads so the ad dollars dried up and lots of WEB sites went bust. Then Google and Yahoo perfected ways to target search results. To not only show people sites that matched their search criteria, but to show them sites with products that might interest them based on that criteria. That's when the advertiser's came flocking back. That's the type of advertising that works and generates click through rates that keeps advertisers coming back.

That's the REAL story, Fred.