Online advertising is mostly used by branding banner ads, frequently referred to as “online billboards” or “awareness banners”. But branding, the most commonly used and misused type of banner advertising, is the main cause for the failure of most of web ad campaigns and also is partly responsible for the end of dot-com businesses. How?

To begin with, the duty of branding is to create awareness and a shared commitment to product or service and the brander’s aim is to produce a positive feeling from the target viewers that inducts a response towards the brand in them. This response need not happen immediately, but incessant branding results in audience awareness. It succeeds in keeping the company’s image in the minds of the visitors who might not take any action immediately, but might act down the road.

Online ad campaigns tried branding as the first advertising model after using traditional off-line advertising models like print, television and radio. Branding was the standard advertising form before the introduction of the click-through type and any basic means of banner ad measurement. Established big firms showed no hesitation to invest in branding ad campaigns and smaller ones too began to imitate them. For more than half web advertisers, the main campaign strategy is branding. Today Web site sponsorship ads and email newsletters use this method to a great extent.

Those who favor branding banner ad campaigns put forward some reasons for it. Branding campaigns do not depend much on click-throughs, instead concentrate on gaining exposure. They are able to promote off-line purchases even. According to them it is the best form for creating an emotional response, a favorable one hopefully, from their target viewers. Branding is capable of communicate with visitors at several levels and if used effectively it will be a long-term ad strategy.

It is a fact, many companies use branding as a major form of online promotion for their products; it is equally true that many dot-coms could not succeed even, due to some serious reasons. Branding ad campaigns are very costly to create, maintain and measure and mostly rely on heavy market penetrations or reach. Branding takes a long time for significant results because awareness campaigns are the slowest to measure. Branding expects emotional response from its target audience while the audience look for information rather than a relationship from the web.

Though branding is the riskiest form of ad campaign, if used properly and cleverly, success can be accomplished, when expectations are realistic. And remember, your web site produces a more important branding experience than other banner ads can. So provide the best quality and service as conveyed by the branding message in the banner ads.