Banner ads enjoyed their highest level of prominence right before the Internet bubble burst.

For this reason most online marketers look down on them.

When you conduct an informal survey of online businesses you will discover that the majority would not use them, and would prefer 10 to 1 to use text based ads.

Text based ads have proven to be more effective than banner ads, and are used more to advertise products and services online.

But this does not mean that banner ads cannot be used to advertise online.

As a matter of fact, there are times when an online business will need to use banner ads.

Situations that require the usage of banner ads include sites that have already been saturated with text based ads, such as pay per click ads, product reviews, and links.

You can even see an increased response rate to your banner ad if it is the only one being displayed on the site. More so if it enjoys prominent positioning on the page.

My experience does show that consumers will respond to banner ads if they are designed within certain parameters.

In order for the banner ad to receive a decent response rate it needs to be a professional looking graphic. Consumers will respond according to the attractiveness of the ad, so make sure you use a professional graphic designer, or use a nice looking banner ad supplied by your affiliate program.

The banner ad must also have a very clear message as to what it is offering. Confused consumers will simply move on and explore their options on the site, including simply exiting the site.

Successful banner ads use text that stress product benefits of the products being offered.

Banner ads that combine these three traits can see higher click through rates than text based ads.

They accomplish this by using the image to capture the eyes attention, and the text component to motivate the consumer to click on it.