What is a banner ad?
Picture yourself scrolling through your favorite website or app. Suddenly, a colorful rectangle pops up on your screen, trying to grab your attention. That's a banner ad! It's like a digital billboard for the internet.
Banner ads come in all shapes and sizes. Some are long and skinny, stretching across the top of the page (those are called leaderboards). Some are tall and narrow, running down the side (those are called skyscrapers). They can have still images, flashing colors, or even short videos.
What's the point of banner ads?
Banner ads are there for a few reasons:
Get your name out there: Companies use them to introduce their products or services to a wider audience. Even if someone doesn't click on the ad, they still see the brand's name and logo.
Drive traffic: The ultimate goal of most banner ads is to make you click! They'll usually direct you to a company's website, a specific product page, or maybe even a special offer.
Target the right people: Banner ads don't just pop up randomly. Advertisers can use clever tools to place their ads in front of people who are most likely to be interested based on things like browsing history, location, age, etc.
Do banner ads work?
Sometimes! Whether a banner ad is successful depends on a few things:
The design: A boring or confusing banner ad gets ignored. Eye-catching designs and a clear message are key.
The placement: If the ad is buried on a website nobody sees, it's pretty useless. Prominent spots on popular websites are the best.
Targeting: Showing an ad for winter boots to someone in Florida isn't gonna be too effective. Reaching the right audience is super important.
A word about "banner blindness"
We've all seen so many banner ads, that a lot of us have learned to tune them out. This is called "banner blindness." To combat this, advertisers gotta work hard to make their ads stand out and be truly useful to the person seeing them.