Banner advertising lets you display a visually appealing text and graphics ad to your customers. The ability to show graphics allows you to effectively establish your brand.

Tips for choosing a company to display banner ads

• Where will the ads show up? Are you able to target the ads so that they show up only on relevant web pages?

• Do you pay per impression, or for a guaranteed number of customers to come to your site?

• Does the company give you best practice information about creating effective banner ads?

• How much does it cost, and what is the minimum investment?

• What data do you get about which ads were effective?

• How frequently will your banner ad be displayed

• What size will the ads be, and where will they appear on the page?

• Are there tools to help you create banner ads quickly?

Tips for effective banner advertising

• Use consistent visuals across all your banner ads to help build your brand - even if the customer doesn't click on the ad, they'll remember your logo

• Make sure your company logo or name appears clearly in the ad

• Target your ads to the people most likely to purchase something on your site (e.g. sporting goods advertisements on sports pages, not cooking pages)

• Test your ads with a small group before committing to a full campaign