Web banner
Encyclopedia
A web banner or banner ad is a form of advertising
on the World Wide Web
delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page
. It is intended to attract traffic
to a website
by linking to the website of the advertiser. The advertisement is constructed from an image (GIF, Flash, often employing animation, sound, or video to maximize presence. Images are usually in a high-aspect ratio shape (i.e. either wide and short, or tall and narrow) hence the reference to banner
s. These images are usually placed on web pages that have interesting content, such as a newspaper article or an opinion piece. Affiliates earn money usually on a CPC (cost per click) basis. For every unique user click on the ad, the affiliate earns money.
The web banner is displayed when a web page that references the banner is loaded into a web browser
. This event is known as an "impression". When the viewer clicks on the banner, the viewer is directed to the website advertised in the banner. This event is known as a "click through". In many cases, banners are delivered by a central ad server.
When the advertiser scans their logfiles and detects that a web user has visited the advertiser's site from the content site by clicking on the banner ad, the advertiser sends the content provider some small amount of money (usually around five to ten US cents). This payback system is often how the content provider is able to pay for the Internet
access to supply the content in the first place. Usually though, advertisers use ad networks to serve their advertisements, resulting in a revshare system and higher quality ad placement.
Web banners function the same way as traditional advertisements are intended to function: notifying consumers of the product or service and presenting reasons why the consumer should choose the product in question, although web banners differ in that the results for advertisement campaigns may be monitored real-time and may be targeted to the viewer's interests. Behavior is often tracked through the use of a click tag
.
Many web surfers regard these advertisements as highly annoying because they distract from a web page's actual content or waste bandwidth
. Without attracting attention it would provide no revenue for the advertiser or for the content provider.) Newer web browsers often include options to disable pop-ups or block images from selected websites. Another way of avoiding banners is to use a proxy server
that blocks them, such as Privoxy
. Web browsers may also have extensions available which block banners, for example Adblock Plus for Mozilla Firefox
, or AdThwart for Google Chrome
and ie7pro
for Internet Explorer
.
and Sears at the time. Prodigy used online advertising first to promote Sears products in the 1980s, and then other advertisers, including AOL
, one of Prodigy's direct competitors. Prodigy was unable to capitalize on any of its first mover advantage in online advertising.
The first clickable web ad (which later came to be known by the term "banner ad") was sold by Global Network Navigator
(GNN) in 1993 to Heller, Ehrman, White and McAuliffe, a now defunct law firm with a Silicon Valley office. GNN was the first commercially supported web publication and one of the very first web sites ever.
HotWired
was the first web site to sell banner ads in large quantities to a wide range of major corporate advertisers. Andrew Anker was HotWired's first CEO. Rick Boyce
, a former media buyer with San Francisco advertising agency Hal Riney & Partners, spearheaded the sales effort for the company. HotWired coined the term "banner ad" and was the first company to provide click through rate reports to its customers. The first web banner sold by HotWired was paid for by AT&T
, and was put online on October 27, 1994. Another source also credits Hotwired and October 1994, but has Coors
' "Zima
" campaign as the first web banner.
In May 1994, Ken McCarthy
mentored Boyce in his transition from traditional to online advertising, and first introduced the concept of a clickable/trackable ad. He stated that he believed that only a direct response model—in which the return on investment of individual ads was measured—would prove sustainable over the long run for online advertising. In spite of this prediction, banner ads were valued and sold based on the number of impressions they generated.
The first central ad server was released in July 1995 by Focalink Communications, which enabled the management, targeting, and tracking of online ads. A local ad server quickly followed from NetGravity in January 1996. The technology innovation of the ad server, together with the sale of online ads on an impression basis, fueled a dramatic rise in the proliferation of web advertising and provided the economic foundation for the web industry from the period of 1994 to 2000.
The new online advertising model that emerged in the early years of the 21st century, introduced by GoTo.com (later Overture
, then Yahoo and mass marketed by Google
's AdWords program), relies heavily on tracking ad response rather than impressions.
; they are:
Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial...
on the World Wide Web
World Wide Web
The World Wide Web is a system of interlinked hypertext documents accessed via the Internet...
delivered by an ad server. This form of online advertising entails embedding an advertisement into a web page
Web page
A web page or webpage is a document or information resource that is suitable for the World Wide Web and can be accessed through a web browser and displayed on a monitor or mobile device. This information is usually in HTML or XHTML format, and may provide navigation to other web pages via hypertext...
. It is intended to attract traffic
Web traffic
Web traffic is the amount of data sent and received by visitors to a web site. It is a large portion of Internet traffic. This is determined by the number of visitors and the number of pages they visit...
to a website
Website
A website, also written as Web site, web site, or simply site, is a collection of related web pages containing images, videos or other digital assets. A website is hosted on at least one web server, accessible via a network such as the Internet or a private local area network through an Internet...
by linking to the website of the advertiser. The advertisement is constructed from an image (GIF, Flash, often employing animation, sound, or video to maximize presence. Images are usually in a high-aspect ratio shape (i.e. either wide and short, or tall and narrow) hence the reference to banner
Banner
A banner is a flag or other piece of cloth bearing a symbol, logo, slogan or other message. Banner-making is an ancient craft.The word derives from late Latin bandum, a cloth out of which a flag is made...
s. These images are usually placed on web pages that have interesting content, such as a newspaper article or an opinion piece. Affiliates earn money usually on a CPC (cost per click) basis. For every unique user click on the ad, the affiliate earns money.
The web banner is displayed when a web page that references the banner is loaded into a web browser
Web browser
A web browser is a software application for retrieving, presenting, and traversing information resources on the World Wide Web. An information resource is identified by a Uniform Resource Identifier and may be a web page, image, video, or other piece of content...
. This event is known as an "impression". When the viewer clicks on the banner, the viewer is directed to the website advertised in the banner. This event is known as a "click through". In many cases, banners are delivered by a central ad server.
When the advertiser scans their logfiles and detects that a web user has visited the advertiser's site from the content site by clicking on the banner ad, the advertiser sends the content provider some small amount of money (usually around five to ten US cents). This payback system is often how the content provider is able to pay for the Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...
access to supply the content in the first place. Usually though, advertisers use ad networks to serve their advertisements, resulting in a revshare system and higher quality ad placement.
Web banners function the same way as traditional advertisements are intended to function: notifying consumers of the product or service and presenting reasons why the consumer should choose the product in question, although web banners differ in that the results for advertisement campaigns may be monitored real-time and may be targeted to the viewer's interests. Behavior is often tracked through the use of a click tag
Clicktag
A click tag is a parameter used in Flash banner ads. The parameter is a variable that defines the destination URL from the markup code. By using a click tag, the advertiser can easily see and modify the URL without a Flash developer....
.
Many web surfers regard these advertisements as highly annoying because they distract from a web page's actual content or waste bandwidth
Bandwidth (computing)
In computer networking and computer science, bandwidth, network bandwidth, data bandwidth, or digital bandwidth is a measure of available or consumed data communication resources expressed in bits/second or multiples of it .Note that in textbooks on wireless communications, modem data transmission,...
. Without attracting attention it would provide no revenue for the advertiser or for the content provider.) Newer web browsers often include options to disable pop-ups or block images from selected websites. Another way of avoiding banners is to use a proxy server
Proxy server
In computer networks, a proxy server is a server that acts as an intermediary for requests from clients seeking resources from other servers. A client connects to the proxy server, requesting some service, such as a file, connection, web page, or other resource available from a different server...
that blocks them, such as Privoxy
Privoxy
Privoxy is a non-caching web proxy with filtering capabilities for enhancing privacy, modifying web page data and HTTP headers before the page is rendered by the browser. Privoxy is a "privacy enhancing proxy", filtering Web pages and removing advertisements...
. Web browsers may also have extensions available which block banners, for example Adblock Plus for Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox
Mozilla Firefox is a free and open source web browser descended from the Mozilla Application Suite and managed by Mozilla Corporation. , Firefox is the second most widely used browser, with approximately 25% of worldwide usage share of web browsers...
, or AdThwart for Google Chrome
Google Chrome
Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google that uses the WebKit layout engine. It was first released as a beta version for Microsoft Windows on September 2, 2008, and the public stable release was on December 11, 2008. The name is derived from the graphical user interface frame, or...
and ie7pro
IE7Pro
IE7Pro is an add-on for Internet Explorer 6, 7, 8, and 9 that aims to enhance the feature set provided by the browser. IE7Pro adds features such as tab enhancement, an ad blocker and flash blocker, mouse gestures, inline search, privacy enhancements, online bookmark service, Greasemonkey-like user...
for Internet Explorer
Internet Explorer
Windows Internet Explorer is a series of graphical web browsers developed by Microsoft and included as part of the Microsoft Windows line of operating systems, starting in 1995. It was first released as part of the add-on package Plus! for Windows 95 that year...
.
History
The pioneer of online advertising was Prodigy, a company owned by IBMIBM
International Business Machines Corporation or IBM is an American multinational technology and consulting corporation headquartered in Armonk, New York, United States. IBM manufactures and sells computer hardware and software, and it offers infrastructure, hosting and consulting services in areas...
and Sears at the time. Prodigy used online advertising first to promote Sears products in the 1980s, and then other advertisers, including AOL
AOL
AOL Inc. is an American global Internet services and media company. AOL is headquartered at 770 Broadway in New York. Founded in 1983 as Control Video Corporation, it has franchised its services to companies in several nations around the world or set up international versions of its services...
, one of Prodigy's direct competitors. Prodigy was unable to capitalize on any of its first mover advantage in online advertising.
The first clickable web ad (which later came to be known by the term "banner ad") was sold by Global Network Navigator
Global Network Navigator
The Global Network Navigator was the first commercial web publicationand the first web site to offer clickable advertisements, now commonly referred to as "banner ads." The first such internet ad was sold by GNN to Heller Ehrman LLP....
(GNN) in 1993 to Heller, Ehrman, White and McAuliffe, a now defunct law firm with a Silicon Valley office. GNN was the first commercially supported web publication and one of the very first web sites ever.
HotWired
HotWired
Hotwired was the first commercial web magazine, launched on October 27, 1994. Although it was part of Wired Ventures, Hotwired was a separate entity from Wired, the print magazine, and had original content....
was the first web site to sell banner ads in large quantities to a wide range of major corporate advertisers. Andrew Anker was HotWired's first CEO. Rick Boyce
Rick Boyce
Rick Boyce was an early marketeer in the commercialization of the World Wide Web.A media buyer with the San Francisco ad agency Hal Riney & Partners, Boyce was recruited by HotWired's chief executive officer, Andrew Anker, to be HotWired's director of business development when the company was...
, a former media buyer with San Francisco advertising agency Hal Riney & Partners, spearheaded the sales effort for the company. HotWired coined the term "banner ad" and was the first company to provide click through rate reports to its customers. The first web banner sold by HotWired was paid for by AT&T
AT&T
AT&T Inc. is an American multinational telecommunications corporation headquartered in Whitacre Tower, Dallas, Texas, United States. It is the largest provider of mobile telephony and fixed telephony in the United States, and is also a provider of broadband and subscription television services...
, and was put online on October 27, 1994. Another source also credits Hotwired and October 1994, but has Coors
Coors Brewing Company
The Coors Brewing Company is a regional division of the world's fifth-largest brewing company, the Canadian Molson Coors Brewing Company and is the third-largest brewer in the United States...
' "Zima
Zima
Zima is a clear, lightly carbonated, alcoholic beverage, made and distributed by the Coors Brewing Company, ultimately MillerCoors. Introduced in 1993, it was marketed not as a beer, but as an alternative to beer, an early example of what is now often referred to as alcopop. Its domestic production...
" campaign as the first web banner.
In May 1994, Ken McCarthy
Ken McCarthy
Ken McCarthy is an American activist, educator, entrepreneur and Internet commercialization pioneer.- Early life and education :Born in New Haven, Connecticut, McCarthy's father Francis W...
mentored Boyce in his transition from traditional to online advertising, and first introduced the concept of a clickable/trackable ad. He stated that he believed that only a direct response model—in which the return on investment of individual ads was measured—would prove sustainable over the long run for online advertising. In spite of this prediction, banner ads were valued and sold based on the number of impressions they generated.
The first central ad server was released in July 1995 by Focalink Communications, which enabled the management, targeting, and tracking of online ads. A local ad server quickly followed from NetGravity in January 1996. The technology innovation of the ad server, together with the sale of online ads on an impression basis, fueled a dramatic rise in the proliferation of web advertising and provided the economic foundation for the web industry from the period of 1994 to 2000.
The new online advertising model that emerged in the early years of the 21st century, introduced by GoTo.com (later Overture
Overture
Overture in music is the term originally applied to the instrumental introduction to an opera...
, then Yahoo and mass marketed by Google
Google
Google Inc. is an American multinational public corporation invested in Internet search, cloud computing, and advertising technologies. Google hosts and develops a number of Internet-based services and products, and generates profit primarily from advertising through its AdWords program...
's AdWords program), relies heavily on tracking ad response rather than impressions.
Standard sizes
Ad sizes have been standardized to some extent by the IABInteractive Advertising Bureau
The Interactive Advertising Bureau is an advertising business organization that develops industry standards, conducts research, and provides legal support for the online advertising industry. The organization represents a large number of the most prominent media outlets in the United...
; they are:
| Name | Width / px | Height / px | Aspect ratio Aspect ratio The aspect ratio of a shape is the ratio of its longer dimension to its shorter dimension. It may be applied to two characteristic dimensions of a three-dimensional shape, such as the ratio of the longest and shortest axis, or for symmetrical objects that are described by just two measurements,... |
|---|---|---|---|
| Rectangles and Pop-Ups | |||
| Medium Rectangle | 300 | 250 | 1.2 |
| Square Pop-Up | 250 | 250 | 1 |
| Vertical Rectangle | 240 | 400 | 1.67 |
| Large Rectangle | 336 | 280 | 1.2 |
| Rectangle | 180 | 150 | 1.2 |
| 3:1 Rectangle | 300 | 100 | 3 |
| Pop-Under | 720 | 300 | 2.4 |
| Banners and Buttons | |||
| Full banner | 468 | 60 | 7.8 |
| Half banner | 234 | 60 | 3.9 |
| Micro bar | 88 | 31 | 2.84 |
| Button 1 | 120 | 90 | 1.33 |
| Button 2 | 120 | 60 | 2 |
| Vertical banner | 120 | 240 | 2 |
| Square button | 125 | 125 | 1 |
| Leaderboard | 728 | 90 | 8.09 |
| Skyscrapers | |||
| Wide skyscraper | 160 | 600 | 3.75 |
| Skyscraper | 120 | 600 | 5 |
| Half page ad | 300 | 600 | 2 |
See also
- Pay per clickPay per clickPay per click is an Internet advertising model used to direct traffic to websites, where advertisers pay the publisher when the ad is clicked. With search engines, advertisers typically bid on keyword phrases relevant to their target market...
- Ad servingAd servingAd serving describes the technology and service that places advertisements on web sites. Ad serving technology companies provide software to web sites and advertisers to serve ads, count them, choose the ads that will make the website or advertiser most money, and monitor progress of different...
- Internet marketingInternet marketingInternet marketing, also known as digital marketing, web marketing, online marketing, search marketing or e-marketing, is referred to as the marketing of products or services over the Internet...
- Web analyticsWeb analyticsWeb analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of internet data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage....
- Pop-up adPop-up adPop-up ads or pop-ups are a form of online advertising on the World Wide Web intended to attract web traffic or capture email addresses. Pop-ups are generally new web browser windows to display advertisements...
- Hover adHover adHover ads are a special type of pop-up ads created using Dynamic HTML, JavaScript and similar web browser technologies. Because they do not scroll with the web page, they appear to "hover" over the page, usually obscuring the content.- Background :...
- Live bannerLive BannerA live banner is a banner ad which is created dynamically at the time of display, instead of being pre-programmed with fixed content...
- Standard ad sizeStandard ad sizeThe Universal Ad Package is a set of four ad sizes that all compliant member publishers have agreed to support for Internet advertising. This standard is published by the Interactive Advertising Bureau.* 300 x 250 -...
- Web buttonWeb buttonWeb buttons, button graphics, web badges or stickers are pictures in some World Wide Web pages which are typically used to advertise programs that were used to create or host the site , programs that are recommended to view the site, or that the site passes World Wide...