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Banner
advertising
Contributor:
Mike de Sousa, Director, AbleStable®
Nearly all web sites feature banner advertising
of one sort or another and
most commercial sites now integrate banners into
their design and ethos. This articles explores the
issues surrounding them.
The purpose of banner advertising
The purpose
of a web site banner or banner-window is to make
the user click and travel to a new site. If effective,
the user's intention is at best suspended, at worst,
permanently distracted. Commercial pressures continue
to push the boundaries of screen real estate with
an increasing trend towards banners. As web sites
base financial viability on an increasing dependency
on banner revenue, they become locked into funding
strategies that may be at odds with their very purpose.
A
shaky business model
The financial arguments for featuring banner advertising
remain attractive as a method of generating income
to maintain the heavy costs associated with web
site development and maintenance. However web sites
that base their business model solely on generating
revenue from banner advertising will be in for a
rough ride, and many have already fallen by the
way side as the Internet begins to settle down into
a more mature commercial environment.
Distract
at your peril
As we've argued, advertising may on occasion conflict
with the main purpose of the company web site. What
follows is an example of how distraction from the
main event (in this case a film) can seriously undermine
the underlying service:
ITV, a commercial television service based in the
UK, at
one time ran their evening feature films in two
parts. The first part began an hour before the 10.00pm
news, and the final part ran from around 10.40pm
after the completion of the news, a summary of local
news, and five minutes of advertising. The resulting
experience of seeing such a disjointed offering
was to often preclude and/or frustrate any complete
involvement in the film. For some, this was a satisfactory
arrangement, for many who loved films however, it
so ruined the experience of the narrative it was
better not to see the film at all.
This may seem a long way away from a web site banner
add, but the effects of banner advertising can be
even more serious. Internet users may never return
to a site if they are taken elsewhere and find that
site particularly useful. The original site hosting
the banner add is often perceived of as a blip on
the road to what proved to be a useful outing. There
goes your very purpose for having a web site in
the first place: to connect people to you, your
service and/or your products.
Conclusion
Web banners can become salutary lessons in the dangers
of not considering the full implications of what
might first appear a simple method of making money.
If you want your site to last well into the future
as a sustainable and growing business, don't fall
into the trap of providing banners without purpose.
That doesn't mean that at times banner advertising
may bring real benefits apart from revenue. There
is a school of thought that suggests the association
of large sites such as Amazon can bolster a web
site's status. Whatever you decide ensure you've
thought long and hard about the prospect of banner
advertising rather
than accepting the idea from a financial manager
as a simple way to create revenue. |
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| Authors
background |
Mike
de Sousa is the Director of AbleStable®.
Mike has been commissioned as an artist, music
composer, photographer, print and web site designer,
and author.
If you observe inaccuracies in our in-house
contributions or wish to contribute an article
or review to be included at AbleStable®
visit Feedback.
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Notice
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AbleStable © 2002-2008 |
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