Banner advertising - the basics you need to know!

Banners have become the most popular means of advertising on the Internet. You can organize your banner advertising for free through banner exchange programs. (Read more about this in Banner exchange article). If you decided to pay for your advertising it is better to do some research on where your advertising dollars would have the best return.

Here are some terms used in banner advertising:

Impression:
One (1) impression occurs each time a banner is displayed on a screen. Also known as a "View".

CPM:
Cost Per Thousand impressions: This is the unit of measure by which most banners are sold, the important distinction here is to understand that you are buying in bundles of 1000 impressions and not by the number of times the banner is clicked on.Click (or Click through):All banners act as a link (or "URL") to the web site of the advertisers product or service. This means that anyone viewing the banner may choose to click the banner and be taken to that web site. A "Click" occurs when a person does indeed click a banner and visit the advertisers web site.

CTR:
Click Through Rate. The ratio of "Impressions" to "Clicks" usually expressed as a percentage. eg. 1% This means that for every 100 times a banner is displayed - one person clicks on it. The industry average is under 1% and is approaching 0.5%. However, quality art with a good message on your banner, combined with relevant context with the page that the banner is displayed on, can raise this to 2% or greater. Exceptional results of over 3% can be achieved with highly targeted campaigns

CPC:
Cost Per Click. Some web sites will sell banner space based on a payment method measured by the amount of Clicks the banner receives. eg. A CPC of $0.50 means that every time the banner is clicked the advertiser pays the web site fifty cents. Some advertisers prefer to buy this way as they are only interested in achieving click throughs - the web site prepared to sell banners in this way may reserve the right to reject your product or the actual banner art - as poor product or art means that neither party will get results but the web site incurs the most risk (opportunity cost) compared to a CPM transaction, where as the advertiser risks little.

General Rotation / Run of Site:
Banners on General Rotation are displayed at random across any part of a web site to any site visitor. Also know as "Run of site" these campaigns tend to be the least expensive because they are the least targeted.

Source: http://www.wowbrand.com