Banners

Banner ads are a form of online advertising where an image, JavaScript, or multimedia object are displayed on a website in an attempt to drive traffic to the advertiser's website. This site will provide valuable information on how to use banner ads as part of your online advertising strategy.

Banners - Overview
A banner is simply a message display. Below are the different types of banners, how each banner is created and effectively used. There are some similarities between physical banners and Internet banners, and there are also major elements that are completely different. What banner one requires ultimately depends on the consumer's needs.

Banner (the word) has several connotations and meanings depending on the context of the discussion. A banner can be seen at a political rally or a county fair. Banners are used in parades, weddings and anniversary celebrations. Banners are used at construction sites to tell who the builder is and what the building will be used for. They are seen often at sporting events of all kinds. Protest marches always carry banners detailing their protest. They even have been seen at funerals, which is a "use-stretch" that does not come readily to mind.

They can be displayed any place there is a need to get a public message out. A banner can be created by hand, by machine or on a computer. A banner can be of one color and all text. It can be multicolored with images and various sizes of text fonts. This is what a person would refer to as physical banners. A banner of this type is usually hung in a viewable place such as the back of a booth at a trade show or on the side of a building. The construction of such a banner is typically vinyl with grommets.

A variation that we see of these banners is ads on the sides of busses. They are made in a similar way that the fair banners are created. Except in this case, they are printed on vinyl with a sticky back. The banner is then attached to the side of a bus on a banner carrier. This carrier is light wood or metal that allows the sticky backed vinyl to be attached. The carrier is then slid into a frame made for this type of display. The frame is permanent on the bus.

A similar version of the bus banner is the signs one sees on top of taxis and delivery vehicles; such signs are not considered as standard banners, but they are made the same way and displayed for public reading. They are printed on sign material of either aluminum or tough styrene. Just another form of message display!

Banners on the Internet refer to those clickable ads seen on specific company websites or destination websites. These banners can be static or have a message that changes every few seconds. The changing message is simple to do as the text part is just on a continuous loop that has a timed interval. These are common on destination websites. If the viewer clicks on one of these Internet banners, the viewer is taken to the advertiser's website. These ads are at the top rung of Internet ad expense. Most destinations websites limit the number of banner ads they will display on the home page. This limit is one of the reasons a destination website can charge what they do for a banner ad.

Greater investigation of the different types of banners will be seen in the following highlighted banner sub-areas.

Sign Painter Banners
The oldest version of a banner was hand drawn or painted. It was created on long sheets of butcher paper or drawn directly on the storefront window. The paper banners had a short life span and usually were recreated as needed by a professional sign painter. These banners and their professional creation is fast becoming a lost art in these modern times. A good sign painter was an artist with words and images. Computers and banner maker machines have taken over this way of making banners. The skill that a sign painter needed is replaced by the computer, which almost any one can do. It is a modern replacement of an old and beautiful art form.

Paper Banners that are Computer Generated
These banners can be any length, but not very tall unless the maker has a special printer. Images and text can be included on the banner. Since these are paper banners, the useful life is short in duration. They also will not stand up to inclement weather. The advantage is anyone with a little software knowledge can make one of these banners. Businesses have found they can do these in house and do not have to hire a professional banner maker. Their computer has replaced the pro in this case.

These paper banners are ideal for use at home parties or small family gatherings. The banner itself is computer generated on paper that not separated or is later taped together to give the banner its length. The text can be quite large as the printing is done in the landscape mode. (Sideways) If run through a color printer, it can have text of different colors. It may also have an image or images. All of these capabilities are available to the layman with a computer, the right software and a good printer.

Banners created by a Banner Maker
The term Banner Maker can be applied to a business that makes banners or to the various software programs that are now available to make banners by computer. This could be the print out of banners or web useful banner art. The term is used interchangeably to describe a maker or the software the maker uses. Banner maker could be applied to machines that are used in cutting out vinyl letters or logos. These vinyl cutouts were on sticky backed vinyl that then was placed on the empty banner itself. A banner maker can be related to a computer machine that prints a banner on vinyl substrates.

Banner makers are also a good place to find generic banners such as “Grand Opening” or “Going out of business Sale”. These ready-made banners can be rented or purchased. This is a time saver and less expensive as they do not need to be custom made. Generic banners such as “For Rent” are commonly displayed on the side of a building and are made of a durable vinyl.

There are obviously few areas where a message that needs to be displayed outside, could not be completed by a vinyl banner.

Banners printed on Tyvek or Vinyl
The decision to print a banner on Tyvek or vinyl depends on how it is going to be used and for how long. Indoors use of a banner would allow Tyvek to be used, but it will still not last as long as vinyl. Outside display demands use of vinyl, as the elements of weather and wind will conspire to destroy an outside banner. A banner that is to be used over and over should definitely be printed on vinyl. An example would be a banner displayed at trade shows or fairs.

The grommets in a Tyvek banner will pull out very quickly in a banner hung on the side of a building. A heavy vinyl banner will not have this problem. Think of a truck you have seen driving down the freeway with a vinyl cover protecting the cargo. The wind does not destroy the vinyl and neither does the weather. Some of these banners are so large that they need to have slits put in them to let the wind pass through. If they were not slotted, they would become like a sail. In heavy wind this could put great stress on the banner’s corners and grommets.

Banners like this are machine printed by special computer driven printers. These printers are capable of printing large surface areas and can print copy to the length of the banner.

Another way they are printed is by screen-printing. This entails putting each color down separately and four-color images cannot be easily accommodated. These banners are typically a solid color vinyl with a contrasting text message. They can be printed to almost any size by printing the banner in sections and then sewing the sections together. This author has seen them 30 feet long and 5 feet tall. They were displayed on the side of bank buildings and constructed of very tough vinyl with industrial grommets. They were hung on the 20th story and faced severe wind on some days. Because all of the weather factors were considered when making the banner, the banner held-up great. Proof that planning for problems can make or break the project.

The beauty of vinyl banners is they can be rolled up and stored until they are needed again. The one time expense to create a banner of this type can be spread out over numerous uses. A vinyl banner of this type will be useful for a number of years.

Horizontal and Vertical Banners
Banners do not always need to be displayed in a horizontal direction. There are special stands that will display banners of 3 feet by 7 feet or 4 feet by 10 feet in a vertical plane. The stands are terrific for small meetings or as an eye catcher at a trade show. Special sign companies have the equipment to make these banners and they usually sell the holding stands.

You are not limited to text only, but can have full color images and artwork. This different way to present information gets the attention of the viewer. It helps to focus the client’s mind on the points the presenter wants to emphasize. This banner is a great show and tell visual. Think vertical. A focused customer is open to what is being sold. The text and images displayed in this way drive home important points that the presenter wants the customer to retain. Think vertical to make this happen.

Advertising on the Internet using A Banner
There are many ways to advertise on the Internet. A private website dedicated to a specific company is the way most advertisers start. The problem is not yet resolved by just owning a website. A website is only good to the owner if there is traffic that views the website. Website owners go to great lengths to drive traffic to their website. They do their best to gain traffic by optimizing their visibility in search engines. They hire special writers to script the site text. A thoughtful, well written website has a chance; matching what the viewer types in a search is key. The website advertisers also buy links to their website on city sites, radio sites TV sites and special business sites. In resort areas there are usually destination sites that the resort businesses can advertise on via links, tile ads and banner ads. It is this area of web advertising that needs further explanation.

There are so many variables an advertiser can consider when trying to get traffic via another website. The buyer can purchase links to his site under specific categories on the marketing website. They can buy space for what are called tile ads. Tile ads are tiny banner ads that are usually found in subsections of the marketing website. Typically they are displayed on the right side of a web page.

The buyer can purchase banner ad space. This space is usually at the top of the web page and can be found on the home page or other sub pages. The page the ad appears on determines the cost for the banner advertisement. The home page of any website gets the maximum traffic. Therefore, more visitors will see the banner ad at the top of this page. For this reason a banner ad on the home page of a busy site will be the most expensive ad that can be purchased.

Banner ad use on Websites
A banner ad on a website is a static ad or active ad (changing image/text information) that gives teaser information. This teaser will hopefully cause the viewer to click on the ad and be taken to the advertiser’s website. The location of the banner ad can dramatically change the price of such a purchased ad. It could also be done on the advertisers own site, but the impact will be limited to the traffic that is already visiting the website.

A banner ad can be placed anywhere on the website. Sub areas do not get viewed as much as the home page. This is the reason for the price difference between ads on the home page vs. a sub category.

The only reason a banner ad would be purchased on another site is to drive traffic to the purchaser’s website. Home page banner ads are the most important and pricey ones to purchase. The most important criteria for such a purchase are that the banner site has large traffic. It is this traffic that will get viewers to click on the banner ad and go to the buyer’s site. A rotating banner message will be useful in capturing traffic from the banner site. It also should be renewed with new text or images at reasonable intervals.

Home page Banner ads

A banner ad on the home page of a large traffic website will get clicked on frequently by viewers. The more traffic the site gets, the higher the cost of such a banner ad. In a resort area this type of advertising is expensive and will generate traffic on the buyer’s site. The home page is the place to be on a busy site. Sub categories can be considered if the sub areas are getting viewed. The owner of a site that a buyer is considering should be able to provide visitor details. The importance of the site traffic that the banner ad will be placed on cannot be overstated. High traffic equals more clicks to the banner ad’s website. More clicks more visitors. Visitors are the name of the game.

Summary
Presenting information by a banner can be done in many ways. An advertiser can use both physical banners and web banners. The only reason one is better than another, is the situation the advertiser is trying to take advantage of to gain customers. Both banners can have similar information on them; however they should be designed for appropriate use. The side of a bus demands larger fonts for example so it can be easily read. A web banner could have smaller fonts for its text. A bright color back ground may be better for an outdoor banner. A web banner does not have to scream off of the computer screen to be effective.

A web banner can have wonderful computer created images as part of the display. A banner maker can use these same images saved on a larger scale on physical banners to improve the message.

Basically the banner, no matter what type, can be constructed using similar text and images. The difference in the banner construction s the scale and size they need to be saved in on a computer.


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