Guide to Banner Advertising

What is banner advertising?

Banner advertising is a method of advertising on websites using small, usually rectangular advertisements.

"Advertisers generally hope a banner ad will do one of two things. Ideally, a visitor to the publisher site, the Web site that posts the banner ad, will click on the banner ad and go to the advertiser's Web site. In this case the banner ad has brought the advertiser a visitor they would not have had otherwise. The banner ad is a real success if the visitor not only comes to the site but also buys something. Failing a click-through, advertisers hope that a publisher site visitor will see the banner ad and will somehow register it in their heads. This could mean the visitor consciously notes the content of a banner ad and decides to visit the advertiser's site at some time in the future, or it might mean that the visitor only peripherally picks up on the ad but is made aware of the advertiser's product or service.

This second effect of advertising is known as branding. We've all experienced the effects of branding before. Say you see ads on television for Brand X glue all the time. The ads don't seem to particularly affect you -- you don't leap from your couch to go buy glue -- but down the road, when you're at the store shopping for glue, they may affect the decision you make. If you don't have any other reason to choose one type of glue over the others, you'll probably choose the one you're most familiar with, Brand X, even if you're only familiar with it because of advertising." - howstuffworks.com

Technical terms

• Clicks/Click-throughs: The number of visitors who click on the banner ad.
• Page views/impressions: This is the number of times a particular web page has been requested from the server. Advertisers are interested in page views because they indicate the number of visitors who could have seen the banner ad. Although they don't measure the effectiveness of a branding campaign, they do measure how many visitors were exposed to it.
• Click-through rate (CTR): This describes the ratio of page views to clicks. It is expressed as the percentage of total visitors to a particular page who actually clicked on the banner ad. The typical click-through-rate is something under 1 percent, and click-through rates significantly higher than that are experienced very rarely.
• Format: This refers to the type of file that the banner ad has been created in. The three vaild file types that can be accepted are: JPEG (.jpg), GIF (.gif) and SWF (.swf).
• Weight: The size of the file that is to be used as the banner ad, usually measured in KB (Kilobytes).
• Size: This refers to the physical dimensions of the banner ad i.e. the width and the height. It is always measured in pixels (px).
• Type: This usually refers to the size of a banner ad. Type is described by names of common banner ad sizes used across the internet. These include: Full Banner (468x60px), Skyscraper (120x600px), Vertical Banner, (120x240px), Medium Rectangle (300x250px) and Button (120x90px).

Example advert sizes

Any adverts that you would like to add to one or more of our websites should be supplied in JPEG (.jpg), GIF (.gif) or SWF (.swf) format.

They should also conform to one of the following set of dimensions:

How can I advertise online with Media 10?

There are two main routes to advertising online with us: you supply us with a banner ad or alternatively we design and build a banner ad for you to your specification.

If you chose to supply us with an advert, it is vital that it meets our technical specifications. Please speak to a member of our team for a copy of our full specifications.

We have a wide range of advertising options: Online recruitment Advertising, Video Hosting, Banner Advertising, Customised Branding and Sponsorship Packages, Client Sponsored Editorial, Targeted e-Newsletter Campaigns AND much more!

Call us on 01992 570 030

Contact Ross Dickson (icon + iconeye), Liam Evans (onoffice), James Lloyd (Grand Designs Magazine) or Craig Liebman (The Selfbuilder) to find-out more about how to advertise with us.