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Banner advertising
Banner ads are one of the most common and recognized forms of advertising on the web. Although the popularity of banner advertising has declined somewhat in recent years (in favor of keyword search advertising, affiliate marketing, and other methods), it is still a popular and useful means of advertising your business.
Banner ads consist of graphical (and often animated) advertisements that are strategically placed on high-traffic and/or content-related websites. Each time the ad is displayed to someone loading the website, it is known as an "impression". Each time someone clicks the ad to visit the advertiser's site, it is known as a "click-through". Advertising rates for banner ads may be based on either impressions or click-throughs or a combination of the two.
Creating banner ads
Banner ads come in a variety of flavors. Sizes range from miniscule "button" ads to page-wide "leaderboard" ads. They can also be created in several different file formats. The most popular file formats for banner ads are the standard web image formats: JPEG, GIF, and PNG. Recently, however, Flash ads have become the dominant format on many sites, often employing animation and even game-style interaction to maximize the presence of the ad.
Some common sizes for banner ads include:
- Full banner - 468 x 60 pixels
- Half banner - 234 x 60 pixels
- Vertical banner - 120 x 240 pixels
- Leaderboard - 728 x 90 pixels
- Microbar - 88 x 31 pixles
- Square button - 125 x 125 pixels
Source: Interactive Advertising Bureau
