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And while traditional
468x60 banners CTR's have declined significantly over the past
few years, new developments such as the side panel sponsorship
ads (like the 150x800 ad that runs down the right side of ZDNet's
main page) can produce excellent results. These types of sponsorship
ads give advertisers the opportunity to feature multiple products,
tell a more detailed story, and since they are vertical, keep
the ad in front of the viewer's eyeballs for an extended time.
125x125 pixel ads and 120x60 pixel
ads can also be an effective way to present ad graphics as an
alternative to 468x60 banners. These smaller ads produce better
CTR's in many cases as visitors to a site will not "tune out"
these alternative sized ads. Even the 88x31 sized buttons are
worth considering.
Another huge benefit of running graphical
ads on the Web is Branding (create brand awareness). MBinteractive
conducted a survey for the Internet Advertising Bureau that showed
that brand awareness of participating companies increased an average
of 5% and that 49% of participants recalled seeing a given ad
banner on a particular site. Branding is a key component of building
a product or service - consumers are much more likely to buy from
a brand they have heard of Previously than one they haven't.
In the same survey the majority
of respondents said that they approve of banner ads compared to
single digit approval ratings of email advertising. This is an
important factor of banner advertising as this indicates that
the audience is not predisposed unfavorably to banners, as they
are to emailed ads. An Andersen Consulting survey found that banners
were twice as effective as newspaper ads, magazines ads or TV
commercials at driving buyers to online stores.
So we are three quarters of the way
through the year 2000 and the banner is definitely not dead. If
it is indeed dying I think it's safe to say that graphical ads
in one shape or form will be with us for some time to come.
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