The death of the banner ad has been greatly exaggerated. Stats have shown that although banner ads have become relatively less effective than what they used to be, still a large chuck of populace does click, and that might mean big dollars coming your way. If costs can be minimized then banner ads can become a viable solution.

Banner ads can and should be part of your advertising strategy. Just follow these guidelines and it will be a success.

1. Make your banner-ad message short and sweet. Banner ads often are compared to
billboards along freeways: You've got someone's attention for only a short time. Whether you're running the banner at the top of the web page, across the middle or as a "skyscraper" ad on the right, you must get your point across in a few words. Keep it short and sweet. Find the right words and images — including animated GIFs that allow short messages to rotate — to trigger action.

2. Make sure the banner sends your customer to the right place. If you're using
banners simply as branding for your site, it's OK to send users straight to your home page. But banner ads that promote special offers often lure people to a home page, and then leave them with no visual or messaging clues about what to do next. The frustrated user moves on without purchasing. That's one of the biggest [banner ad] mistakes seen.
Instead of sending the user directly to your home page, advertisers should erect a
separate "jump" page or promotion page that explains the offer in detail, and allows the user to take action then and there. This way you know that people got your message, even if they didn't act on it. To that end, make sure your offer is compelling enough to get people to click to the offer page.

3. Target your ads. A campaign targeted to a specific audience is likely to yield better
results, be it a certain demographic group or people working in a specific industry. Putting your ads on large search engines, for example, is not a targeted campaign. But here are a couple: reaching attorneys through websites frequented by lawyers, or golfers through golf magazine sites.
You don't need expensive media research to find any number of suitable sites for your targeted audience – and most of those sites are happy to sell banner ad space.

4. Test your banner ads with a smaller group. The beauty of the Internet is that for little or no cost, you can test your campaign with a subset of your target audience. You also can experiment with different banner ad sizes. The Internet is great for testing messages against your target, gauging the appeal of promotional offers and the type of message that brings a high-interest customer.
The average cost of buying 1,000 impressions (having an ad seen 1,000 different times) is about $26, a minimal sum for a test run. But it can tell you a lot about how successful your banner ad campaign will be.
Another test: See how your banner ads perform when compared to an HTML email
newsletter campaign. HTML email newsletters may allow some small businesses to target their audiences better, so consider a campaign using both.

5. Consider enhancing your ad with rich media. Adding animation, eye catching images,
logos, branding colors, sound and other special effects to your banner ad can have a
marked effect on your campaign. Pros? Messages are generally more noticeable and
memorable, leading to better results. Cons? may slow download times for a website.
The jury is still out on overall value of rich media, as not every computer or website is equipped to support it. But banners using rich media are outpolling standard banners significantly. If a small business can incorporate rich media in a banner, it is worth doing.

6. Don't base your advertising decisions on click-through rates (CTRs). The average
CTR for banner advertising on the Internet is currently 0.2% to 0.4%. What should that mean to you? That there is a lot of bad banner advertising, dragging down the rest.
Concern yourself with creating your own campaign, one that's planned well and geared toward the right audience.
But note that the banners that get high click-throughs may not be the best at getting
"conversions," where the user actually signs up for a subscription or makes a purchase.
That may mean your ad promises more than you can deliver or that your offer is not
appealing. Either way, the success of your campaign depends on whether it drives users to action. Use conversions, also known as "completions," as your metric, or measuring stick.
If your conversions are low, you can take a close look at your ad and make adjustments.

But trust your instincts too as Metrics are not destiny. The numbers sometimes do lie. Have the gumption to stick to your guns, even if it is in the face of conflicting reports. Small businesses can't afford to put all of their advertising eggs in one basket, but banner ads have their place. The bottom line is that banner ads are an effective way to enhance your direct-mail campaign – as long as you put them in the right spots. Hence you must deliberate upon how, where and when you want to place your banner. Thinking before can lead to profits later.