Banner ad advertising is not dead. In fact, banner ads show surprising growth.

US Online Ad Revenues, by Format, 2009 2010 ¹

A MSN internet advertising effectiveness research study shows that:

• Between 7% and 12% of the total time Internet users spend on Web pages is spent viewing ads.
• Online advertising can increase brand awareness among consumers by as much as 300 percent — beating magazines, newspapers and even television!
• Respondents were over 3 times more likely to purchase an advertised brand than survey respondents who didn’t remember seeing the online ad campaign.
• Consumers’ intent to purchase was higher for ads from new online brands compared to advertising for established offline brands.
• Online ad campaigns not only assist companies with their branding goals, but also have a bottom-line impact on a consumers decision to purchase an advertised product or service.

Display advertising, which includes banner ads, is on track to surpass search advertising by 2015.²

And banner advertising, which includes basic static display images, saw a 23.1% ad spending growth in 2010 and accounted for 62.9% of all display ad spending.

So if you’re thinking about advertising with banner ads, it’s definitely a great time to do it.

Before getting started, make sure to define your advertising goals, research ad placement, get a great banner ad designer. And remember, banner advertising (like outdoor billboards) is a great way to improve brand awareness.

1 “Surprising Growth for Standard Banner Ads” emarketer.com
2 “Display on Trajectory to Surpass Search Ad Spending” emarketer.com