Second Article
Is Banner Advertising Still A Good Marketing Tool?
Are banners effective or have they totally lost their
appeal? Some say banner advertising never really had an appeal on a medium that relies on the user doing the navigating rather than the medium calling the shots. Anyway, don't Internet users access the Internet through Search Engines rather than through advertising? Banner
advertising went through stages since its inception to become a marketing tool that motivates people to action instead of merely an informational tool like a print ad or web site.
Banners are found everywhere on the Internet. Do
advertisers expect their exposure to increase recognition? Or, do advertisers want their exposure to lead to a click-through? Unfortunately, research shows that too much banner advertising online is a turn-off for the Internet user who actually starts to gloss over banner advertising. Still, Internet marketing services assert that banner advertising will work as long as its done right and placed
in the right spots.
An Internet user is most receptive to your banner and the
banner's message if it's presented carefully. Positioning
of the banner entails getting the viewer's attention in a
positive manner instead of in an annoying way. Useful
attention grabbers include animation, specific
call-to-action offers, and freebies. Animation works if it
isn't a bothersome distraction. Call-to-action offers
include advice like "If you do this, then you can get rid of
that!" Freebies work if no catch is involved or doesn't
sound too good to be true. When a banner offers more than
basic information, a viewer is more likely to click-through
and performs the requested action.
What does the exposure from banner advertising online
achieve? Does the banner draw in lots of traffic or
visitors willing to buy? The banner must attract the right
target audience that is receptive to performing a
click-through and then purchasing. Where the users of the
1990s didn't think twice about following a banner to a new
location, today's Internet user is more discriminatory and
suspicious of banner's so-called gimmicks such as freebies.
Many banner ads never get the opportunity to flaunt their stuff since many Internet users automatically block their
appearance. As the risks of identify theft, ad ware and spyware increases, more Internet users avoid anything to do with banner advertising. Justifiable or not, many users put banners and invasive programs in the same category. Therefore, many website developers seek alternative marketing tools to announce the site location, products and
services.
Time is of the essence in gaining your visitors attention
- some say you've only 8 seconds before the visitor decides
to stay, or leave
- and banner advertising tends to drag down the loading
speed.
Some web sites rely on banner ads for an extra source of
income, especially if visitors follow the banner to its
destination. However, the web site itself also wants to
maintain its visitors and customers who don't want to be
bugged by advertising and slow downloading times. Sometimes
simpler banners are more effective than complicated flashy banners.
What does an advertiser consider effective when it comes to
Internet advertising anyway? Is the ad effective if people
click on the banner or effective if sales increase as direct
result of the banner ad? The measure of its effectiveness
is sort of hit and miss. Much the effectiveness depends
on the banner's total campaign and goals of the advertiser.
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Riki Trafford is the webmaster of Direct MO
Marketing which offers low cost keyword-targetted web traffic. For comments and questions visit his web site: www.1dmom.com/
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ore Web developers today are ditching tables and coming around to using CSS to control the layout of their Web sites. There are many advantages to using CSS, such as quicker download time and easier site management.
o are HTML tables dead? Not at all.
he problem with CSS is that browsers can sometimes interpret CSS commands in different ways. At that point, many developers throw their arms up in the air and switch back to pixel-perfect table layouts.
h sure, there are CSS hacks for multiple browsers, but sometimes that's more trouble than it's worth!
know many CSS purists will disagree with my take on this and that's fine. Still, as long as your code validates and your pages render the way you want them to, using HTML tables for layout isn't a bad thing.
