E-Commerce Lecture 9

Yahoo Ads Aim to Recapture Search Leadership

PALO ALTO, Calif. (Reuters) - Internet media company Yahoo Inc. on Monday unveiled an advertising campaign aimed at recapturing its role as the No. 1 Web search service from Google Inc. Click here to read the rest of this...

Notes from The Lesson Plan

This lecture will depart from the norm and focus on the immortal "Banner Ad". This is a two-part series. In this lesson we will examine the basics of a Banner Ad, while in Lesson 4, we will apply it and actually create a banner ad.

Be sure to check out the interactive:

Love them or hate them, banner ads are one of the dominant forms of advertising online. Due to the widespread acceptance of the standard 468x60 banner ad size, buyers can easily secure placements at most sites, and publishers can accept ads from most advertisers.

Banner ads were initially judged primarily on the basis of click-through rate (CTR). In the early days of the Web, click-through rates were generally much higher than they are now, perhaps due to the novelty factor. Other causes for the decline in CTR may include technical limitations, the awkward horizontal shape, poor banner design, an excessive percentage of run-of-network buys, and accumulated bad experiences of Web surfers.

"Banners never work" is a common refrain from the anti-banner crowd. Although click-through rates have gone consistently downward, the same can be said of banner ad prices. It is still possible to achieve a click-through rate many times the industry average by combining good placement and design. Combining below-average ad rates and above-average response rates can lead to an acceptable return on investment, just as in any other advertising medium.

In 1996, to help tame the burgeoning but chaotic online advertising industry, the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) began promoting online advertising banner standards. The standards have allowed ad agencies, ad servers, and publishers to make the buying, selling, and serving of advertising space more efficient.

One of the most ubiquitous among the IAB standard formats is the 468 x 60 ad banner. When most people refer to banners, this is the format they usually mean.

What does it cost to place a banner ad? The cost can range from as low as $1.00 per thousand views to as high as 100.00. Click here for full web rates.

Hits -- A fuzzy term meaning the number of times a webserver has been "hit" by a request for a webpage or a graphic image. Since perhaps 5 out 6 "hits" are for graphic images, the number of "hits" can be grossly misleading. Usually people mean by "hits" the number of times a webpage has been seen, but to be precise, the better term is "page views" or "page impressions."

Page impressions or page views -- Refers to the number of times a webpage has been requested by the server.

Banner views -- Refers to the number of times a banner has been viewed. Almost the same as "page views," but some banner server programs don't count the banner view unless the visitor stays on the page long enough for the banner to be fully downloaded from the banner server.

CPM -- A metric from the print days of advertising, meaning "Cost Per Thousand," using the Roman numeral "M" to stand for one thousand. A price of $15 CPM means, $15 for every thousand times a banner is displayed.

Banner ad -- An ad graphic hyperlinked to the URL of the advertiser. These are usually animated GIF images, though we are seeing an increasing number of MacroMedia Flash banners. The full banner size is 468 x 60 pixels, and most sites limit the file size of the graphic to 12K to 16K. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) specifies eight different "standard" banner sizes.

Click Throughs -- Same as "click," commonly used to count the number of visitors who click on the banner and are transferred to the advertiser's site.

Click Through Rate (CTR) -- The percentage of click throughs to banner views. A 1% CTR means that 1% of each 1000 banner views (or 10 visitors) have clicked through.

Conversion Rate -- The percentage of shoppers in an online store who actually make a purchase. This is typically 1% to 5% in online stores, but can be lower or higher.

Cookies -- Small files written to your computer when you view a banner ad, visit a website, or put a product in a shopping cart. This helps the banner server to keep from showing you the same ad, or perhaps show you ads you might be more interested in seeing. Cookies are controversial, but are here to stay; too much of the Web is run by cookies to get rid of them. Cookies also allow an advertiser to track which banner ad a visitor saw that brought him to the advertiser's site, and which banner ads resulted in actual sales.

Run of Site (ROS) -- Refers to displaying a banner ad throughout a website or a banner network with no targeting by keyword or site category. Run of site advertising costs substantially less than more targeted advertising.

source: Using Banner Ads to Promote your site

The Banner Ad Museum is a repository for the professional, student and casual visitor alike to see the art, science and engineering of the Banner Ad as it is today — in the beginning — and hopefully, to track its evolution in the years to come.

One of the hallmarks of a banner ad is the animations that it uses. This can be accomplished through either animated gifs or through Macromedia Flash.

Some people have been predicting the demise of the 468 x 60 ad banners for years. Some say that they are are slowly being phased out. Recently CNET announced a number of new, more intrusive advertising formats that are better integrated into content. "Skyscraper" units are becoming more common (120x600). And the increasingly active and engaged IAB is working to develop new standards that will help usher in a new wave of creativity.