Now that the various types of remuneration for online advertising have been explained, we will explore the amazing array of methods by which advertising can be displayed on the internet.

Online display advertising is increasingly dominated by rich media, often using Macromedia Flash. Rich media advertising techniques make overt use of color, imagery, page layout, and other elements to attract the reader's attention. Although popular with advertisers, some users consider these ads as intrusive, because they can distract from the desired content of a webpage.

Text Ads

The simplest method of advertising is via a humble text ad. Copy is usually used to pre-sell a product or service and then the reader is encouraged to find out more or buy via a text link. When the hyperlink is clicked on, the surfer is sent to the advertiser’s website.

Text ads appear in results of many search engines and integrated into the content of many web pages. They are also popular in newsletters and “spam” emails.

Many advertising networks display text ads that correspond to the keywords of an internet search or to the content of the page on which the ad is shown. These ads are believed to have a greater chance of attracting a user, because they tend to share a similar context as the user's search query. For example, a search query for "book" might return an advert for an online bookstore.

Although text links used to be created mainly in HTML, some advertising networks have started generating them via Javascript and other methods. This has been controversial and disliked by some webmasters. One of the reasons is because Javascript-created text links can be altered by the advertiser without getting the permission of the site owner. Furthermore, the links don’t display if Javascript is turned off in a user’s browser and other issues can occur.

Banner Ads

An advertising image is displayed on a website. Banner ads come in numerous sizes, of which the most common is 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high.

You can see the most common banner ad sizes and the accepted nomenclature here:

Becoming increasingly popular are 728 x 90 banner ads, known as “leaderboard” banners and “square” ones, commonly 300 x 300, 250 x 250 or 336 x 280. These larger size banners are often used by advertisers seeking to build their brand rather than encourage an immediate sale or action.

Pop-Up and Pop-Under Ads

Pop-up adverts usually appear automatically when a surfer visits a web page and they come in front of the content. Pop-under adverts appear below the page the surfer is on and are often discovered when the current browser window is closed.

This form of advertising was prevalent several years ago, but the advent of pop-up blockers has meant most users can stop the ads from appearing and, as a result, they have significantly declined in popularity.

Floating Ads

The decline of the pop-up gave rise to floating adverts, which can’t be removed by most pop-up blockers. These ads float above the content and sometimes move around the screen. Although surfers often say they are annoying, publishers find them to be a good way to monetize their websites as the rate of pay tends to be higher than other forms of advertising. Floating ads grab surfers’ attention and can’t be ignored, so advertisers like to use them.

Interstitial Ads

Some websites display an advert or adverts on a page before the requested content is reached. If used properly, this can be an effective way to advertise because the advertiser has the full attention of the viewer. However, surfers can find them irritating, particularly if the advertising is not in line with the content of the website.

Video Ads

Faster internet speeds and increasing bandwidth is encouraging more advertisers to move beyond graphic and rich-media ads and start using video. These are usually shown in the same sizes as square banner ads.

As web users become blind to the latest forms of advertising and install software to remove them from web pages, advertising agencies are always trying to stay one step ahead by coming up with more innovative methods of getting their messages across.

While one trend is towards highly-animated Rich Media ads, other advertisers are adopting more subtle methods to sell their products and services. These include paying bloggers to write about them or coming up with shocking or humorous viral ads which it is hoped will be distributed around the internet.

Nadeem Azam, PrimeQ
Public Relations Manager
nazam@primeq.co.uk

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