When it comes to banner advertising, the same rules don't apply to everyone. If you want to make your advertising work, it's more than just having an attractive banner. For example, are you trying to develop awareness of your brand, attract prospective customers to your site, or actually make sales? Is banner advertising for you? Ask yourselves these questions before making any rash decisions.

But whatever you are trying to achieve with banner advertising, there are few key rules to getting it right.

Don't lose sight of your objectives

If building awareness is your objective for banner advertising, then make sure that the series of campaigns you develop will follow this trend. Eventually, building awareness and brand will result in traffic to your site and perhaps even produce some sales, but don't get the messages mixed up.

Look before you leap when it comes to planning real estate

Because banner advertising isn't simply about having eye-catching designs, where you place your advertisements is crucial. Before you design your banners, evaluate the web sites you will be placing them on. Is there too much information on the page? Will your banner clash with the site's own banners? Is the content competing with the content of your banner? Avoiding issues like these will set you on the path to success.

Tailor your banner advertising to your target audience

With the Internet, remember that the experience your audience has will vary. Therefore, design your banner to work with different browsers as well as with different connections like dial-up and broadband. Also, make sure you've researched your audience, so, for example, if your audience is made up of novices on the Internet, don't use a Flash based banner.

Keep diligent watch over the performance of your banner

Keeping on top of how often your banner was served and the impact it has had to your web site traffic is key to present and future campaign plans. Make sure you are getting accurate results from the suppliers, because hits or clicks on your banner can sometimes suffer due to browser caching and proxy server caching. Caching simply means images and banners are stored locally so that users don't have to call them from remote locations. Once you've analysed the data, make sure you use it effectively to make improvements or do more research.