Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Happy 20th Birthday, Banner Ads.

Jack Marshall writes in The Wall Street Journal: The banner ad, now 20 years old, might be widely disliked by journalists, consumers, publishers and even marketers, but there’s little evidence to suggest spending on banners is reducing significantly.
Marshall says it’s evident that Web publishers are now aggressively looking beyond the banner for ways to generate ad revenues. The New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, Business Insider, and numerous other major U.S. publishers have recently begun selling sponsored content in addition to banner ads, for example.
Is it possible that revenues generated by sponsored content will one day replace those generated from banner advertising for those publishers? Potentially, but until then the banner ad will continue to be a key money maker for many web sites.

You’ve heard people say that nobody ever clicks on a banner ad. Well somebody must be doing it. I counsel my clients to give prospects a reason to click through to their sites. Create high quality content that will be the basis of a ‘click-through’ offer. Especially for B2B marketers, the need to provide an incentive for prospective customers to click through is clear. Develop content that is relevant, valuable, informative and “snackable.” That’s what will drive traffic to your site. And when that prospect lands on your site, you’d better be ready for him. As you would for a welcomed houseguest, get your house in order.

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