Basics of Website Banner Ads

If you spend any amount of time on the Internet, then you have seen web banner advertising.Online banner advertising is perhaps the most attention-grabbing advertising form. If you are not sure what a banner ad is, simply go to your favorite site, and you will probably find one.

What are Banner Ads?

Web banner advertising appears as small, rectangular advertisements. They are usually created using HTML. You can find banner ads on just about every web page you visit. They usually are colorful and sometimes have animation. The content and the appearance of banner ads varies, but the main goal of web banner advertisers is to get you to click on their ad, which then redirects you to their website. All banner ads are clickable, which means if you click on them with your mouse it will either redirect your browser to another site or open another browser window to take you to the site. They are, in effect, hypertext links.

What is interesting about Internet banner advertising is that they utilize a minimum of code, but powerful and effective in driving traffic to the advertiser’s site. They can be compared to a color advertisement in a newspaper or magazine. Web site banner adds have the advantage, however, of having the power to take the reader straight to the company’s site.

Types of Banner Ads

If you are looking at banner ads for a web site, there are many things you need to consider when choosing your ad style. There are multiple banner advertising options out there. Here are some of the things you have to choose from.

Size

There are eight main sizes of web site banner adds. They are defined by their pixel dimensions. The largest, and by far most popular, size is the 486 x 60 size, or the full banner. These are the larger banner ads you see, usually on the top of the site you are visiting. The next largest format is the 392 x 72, which is a full banner with a vertical navigation bar. These are not as wide as the first size, but they hold more vertical information. Going down the list, you come next to the half banner, which is 234 x 60.

If you are looking for something different than the traditional horizontal bar ad, then consider one of these options. For a vertical ad, you want the 120 x 240 size. Another interesting size is the square button, which is 125 x 125.

For a smaller ad, there are three buttons that are smaller options. The 120 x 90 button is slightly smaller than the square button. This size is called Button 1. The 120 x 60 is slightly shorter again, and is called Button 2. The smallest option is the micro button, which is 88 x 31. There are other size options, but these are the main variations.

Website Limits

There is no limit to how large you can create web site banner adds. That being said, many websites will put a limit on the memory size of the ad, usually around 12k to 16k of memory space. Size limits are implemented to prevent ads from lengthening the load time of the page.

Continue to:  Different Types of Web Site Banner Adds