Ads can come from your competitors or ads might come from the same company selling the ad space. Regardless, all ads are competing for the same audience attention and your ad must be able to capture the audience's interest from all the other advertisements. Many web sites offer multiple slots where banner space can be purchased: top (generally the most expensive), down the left or right side, and bottom. If a banner ad is not placed on the top part of the screen, it is less likely to be noticed.

Even a one ad — a very long vertical banner ad occupying the side of a page — probably will never start at the very top of the page; sometimes users must scroll to see it. If you have the budget, you are still better off purchasing a banner that runs across the top of the page. If the screen real estate is not too cluttered, ask yourself how you can use your banner ad to catch a potential customer's attention.

Evaluate the colors on the web page on which you are purchasing space. Are you better off matching the colors of your banner with the colors of the site? You might not want your banner to communicate "blatant advertisement." Matching some of the colors in your banner can take off the edge. Or can you create a banner that uses different colors to catch peoples' eyes? High-contrast, bright colors for your banner background work well for attracting attention.

Well there you have it, the five most important banner design tips to remember when designing banners. I'd normally end an article like this now but before we end I want to talk about targeting your banner.

Always al ways position your banner on sites that cater for your target audience (ie - the people most likely to buy your product). There's no point putting a banner for a new golf club you sell on a site dedicated to software, visitors to the site simply aren't going to be interested and you're just wasting your money. You should be aiming to place the golf banner on golf related websites, this way you're much more likely to make money. If you're not exposing your banner to your target audience none of the above tips and tricks can save you.

When I began designing ad banners a few years back, I quickly became frustrated with the file size limitations and the odd proportion constraints. Try fitting anything detailed into something that's only 60 pixels high, and you wind up with a blurry antialiased blob that only you can recognize. Yet it's your job to work within the box and create something effective enough to get noticed on a Web page (or even cool enough to throw into your portfolio).