Banner and Rich Media Ads

Although it has been forgotten by many, Rich Media advertising actually preceded Search Engine Marketing. In the earliest days of the Internet and long before Google was started, banner ads were the primary online vehicle to connect an individual with an advertiser. "Rich Media" didn’t even exist as a term.

The benefit to these pioneer advertisers was inexpensive traffic and the opportunity to begin to learn the nuances of online advertising much earlier than most companies. The main downside was a total lack of targeting capabilities, that limited the effectiveness of many campaigns.

Interestingly, there were significant parallels between the rise and fall in popularity of banner ads and the rise and fall in popularity of AOL. When AOL was at or near it’s peak in terms of paying members, these ads were being viewed by the largest contained community of internet users, and as a result, were driving a considerable amount of traffic. As the internet began to blossom beyond AOL and the benefits of staying within the gates that AOL had erected became less palpable, banner effectiveness dropped considerably.

Coinciding with the move of users away from AOL was the emergence of pay-per-click advertising on other search engines, like Yahoo. Unlike Rich Media which was sold on a “Cost per Impression” basis, marketers now had an ability to better allocate their marketing budgets to individuals who actually clicked on their ads.

Recently, Rich Media has re-emerged as an integral dimension of Interactive Marketing. Several factors have converged to boost it’s popularity. The first is significant price escalation within the cost per click marketplace, across all of the major search engines. The second is improvements in technology, which include both enhanced targeting abilities and also the mainstream utilization of new technologies that enable animation, sound and video.

MoreVisibility is helping companies create strategies to leverage Rich Media channels and opportunities. This includes budget allocation guidance as well. We understand the landscape and are ideally suited to help you take advantage of the benefits that Rich Media presents.