1. Make your banner-ad message short and sweet. Banner ads often are compared to billboards along freeways: You've got someone's attention for only a short time. Whether you're running the banner at the top of the Web page, across the middle or as a "skyscraper" ad on the right, you must get your point across in a few words. Such laconic ads have been greatly successful as branding tool, because they deliver a message or name that the viewer can remember.
   If you're a small business, however, you may want to focus on direct advertising. The same rule holds: Keep it short and sweet. Find the right words and images - including animated GIFs that allow short messages to rotate - to trigger action.

2. Make sure the banner sends your customer to the right place. If you're using banners simply as branding for your site, it's OK to send users straight to your home page. But banner ads that promote special offers often lure people to a home page, and then leave them with no visual or messaging clues about what to do next, notes Chris Maher, president of Austin, Texas-based M2K, a B2B marketing company. The frustrated user moves on without purchasing. "That's one of the biggest [banner ad] mistakes we see," Maher says.Instead of sending the user directly to your home page, advertisers should erect a separate "jump" page or promotion page that explains the offer in detail, and allows the user to take action then and there. This way you know that people got your message, even if they didn't act on it. To that end, make sure your offer is compelling enough to get people to click to the offer page, he says.

3. Target your ads. Services such as bCentral's Banner Network allow you to advertise on up to 450,000 different Web sites for free. You're not going to lose any money this way. But a campaign targeted to a specific audience is likely to yield better results (see AdStore for more information).
   A targeted campaign is geared to a specific audience, be it a certain demographic group or people working in a specific industry. Putting your ads on large search engines, for example, is not a targeted campaign. But here are a couple: reaching attorneys through Web sites frequented by lawyers, such as The National Law Journal and Writ, or gardeners through sites such as The Gardener's Network and You Grow Girl, among others. Another: reaching retired people through sites such as Retired.com and Fifty-plus.net.
    You don't need expensive media research to find any number of suitable sites for your targeted audience. Get ideas from the trade magazines read by your audience. Do an MSN search for, say, "lawyers," "gardeners" or whatever, and check out the listings. Search for sites within your community. You should find all you need on the Web.

4. Test your banner ads with a smaller group. The beauty of the Internet is that for little or no cost, you can test your campaign with a subset of your target audience. You also can experiment with different banner ad sizes. "The Internet is great for testing messages against your target, gauging the appeal of promotional offers and the type of message that brings a high-interest customer," says Kathy Sharpe, founder of Sharpe Partners, a New York-based interactive marketing company.
    The average cost of buying 1,000 impressions (having an ad seen 1,000 different times) is about $26, a minimal sum for a test run. But it can tell you a lot about how successful your banner ad campaign will be, notes Marc Ryan, director of media research at AdRelevance in Seattle.
    Another test: See how your banner ads perform when compared to an e-mail newsletter sponsorship campaign. E-mail newsletters may allow some small businesses to target their audiences better, says Barry Silverstein, CEO of Directech/eMerge, a Lexington, Mass., marketing company. Consider a campaign using both.
    5. Employ banner ads as part of your overall advertising strategy. As mentioned above, targeted banner ads may work well as a one-two punch with an e-mail newsletter sponsorship. If using either or both interests you, check out Microsoft bCentral's Traffic Builder services, which include both e-newsletter and banner advertising tools. Another possibility is tying banner ads to a direct-mail offer, where the ads use similar images and reinforce the message. "Banner ads are an effective way to enhance your direct-mail campaign," Silverstein says.

6. Consider enhancing your ad with rich media. Adding animation, sound and other special effects to your banner ad can have a marked effect on your campaign. Pros? Messages are generally more noticeable and memorable, leading to better results. Cons? Rich media may require the hiring of a separate technology company, could end up costing three times as much as a regular banner ad and may slow download times for a Web site.
     The jury is still out on overall value of rich media, as not every computer or Web site is equipped to support it. But banners using rich media are outpolling standard banners significantly, says Silverstein. "If a small business can incorporate rich media in a banner, it is worth doing," he says. For more information on rich media, check out Enliven.

7. Don't base your advertising decisions on click-through rates (CTRs). The average CTR for banner advertising on the Internet is currently 0.2% to 0.4%. What should that mean to you? That there is a lot of bad banner advertising, dragging down the rest. Concern yourself with creating your own campaign, one that's planned well and geared toward the right audience.
   But note that the banners that get high click-throughs may not be the best at getting "conversions," where the user actually signs up for a subscription or makes a purchase. That may mean your ad promises more than you can deliver or that your offer is not appealing. Either way, the success of your campaign depends on whether it drives users to action. Use conversions, also known as "completions," as your metric, or measuring stick. If your conversions are low, you can take a close look at your ad and make adjustments.
    But trust your instincts too, Maher urges. "Metrics are not destiny. The numbers sometimes do lie. Have the gumption to stick to your guns, even if it is in the face of conflicting reports."
    Small businesses can't afford to put all of their advertising eggs in one basket, stresses Catalano, co-author of a book called "Internet Marketing for Dummies." But banner ads have their place, he says, even if they have lost some of their romantic appeal.