Page 217 - Electronic Commerce

Chapter 4

A leaderboard ad is a banner ad that is designed to span the top or bottom of a
Web page. A skyscraper ad is a banner ad that is designed to be placed on the side of
a Web page and remain visible as the user scrolls down through the page. You can learn
more about banner ads, including examples of the latest IAB-approved sizes, by following
the Web Links to the IAB Web site.
192 Most advertising agencies that work with online clients can create banner ads as part of
their services. Web site design firms can also create banner ads. Charges for creating banner
ads range from about $50 to more than $8000, depending on the complexity of the ad.

Banner Ad Placement
Companies have three different ways to arrange for other Web sites to display their
banner ads. The first is to use a banner exchange network. A banner exchange network
coordinates ad sharing so that other sites run one company’s ad while that company’s
site runs other exchange members’ ads. Usually, the exchange requires each member
site to accept two ads on its site for every one of its ads that appears on another member’s
site. The exchange then makes its profit by selling the extra ad space to other businesses.
Companies in the banner exchange business include HitExchange and Voltrank.
Because banner exchanges are free, many smaller online businesses use them;
however, it is often difficult to find a group of other Web sites that have formed an
exchange or that belong to an exchange that are not direct competitors. This limitation
prevents many businesses from using banner exchange networks.
The second way that businesses can place their banner advertising is to find Web sites
that appeal to one of the company’s market segments and then pay those sites to carry the
ads. This can take considerable time and effort. Smaller sites might not have an established
pricing policy for advertising. Larger sites usually have high standard rates that they discount
for larger customers. Smaller customers generally pay the standard rates. A company can
hire an advertising agency to negotiate lower rates and help with ad placement. A full-service
advertising agency can help design the ads, create the banners, and identify appropriate Web
sites on which to display them. Agencies that do a lot of Internet work can often negotiate
lower advertising rates with sites because the agencies can consolidate their clients’ budgets
and buy large blocks of advertising space at one time.
A third way to place banner advertising is to use a banner advertising network. A
banner advertising network acts as a broker between advertisers and Web sites that carry
ads. The larger banner advertising networks, such as DoubleClick (now owned by Google)
and ValueClick, offer many of the same services as comprehensive ad agencies.

New Strategies for Banner Ads
Click-through rates now range from .3 percent to .5 percent, depending on the site’s
content. Although some recent research suggests that Web site visitors see and are
influenced by banner ads that they do not click, advertisers are reluctant to pay for ads
that do not produce directly measurable results.
To battle the decrease in click-through rates, banner ad designers first introduced
animated GIFs with moving elements in the hopes that they might be more attractive to
the user’s eye than stationary graphics. When animated GIFs failed to halt the decline,
designers created ads that included rich media effects, such as video clips. They also

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