The key to successful banner advertising is to learn and understand the most effective methods and track what produces the best results and directs the most useful web site traffic to your web site. In this article we will discuss banner ad placement.

There are probably websites out there in cyberspace with a demographic that appeals greatly to you. You may ask yourself exactly how you can tap into the demo market of a particular web site and bring some of their web site traffic to your site. Banner advertising is the way to do this.

Concentrate your search on sites that focus on a similar niche to your site without being a direct competitor. Review their pricing for banner advertising to see if buying their ad space is within your budget. You may even want to contact the site administrator or Webmaster to ask about the possibility of a banner exchange program between your two sites with the idea that both sites could generate increased web site traffic.

A free banner swap with a similar niche site may save you some dollars by avoiding the need to buy high priced ad spots. It's important to remember that banner placement is crucial to the success of your banner advertising actually increasing web site traffic. This is especially important if you are spending a lot of money for your banner advertising.

Many popular high traffic websites are not one bit shy about charging a good penny for ad space on their site - so know where your banner is getting placed to ensure that the money you are throwing out will actually increase your web site traffic!

It was once believed that the most effective placement for banner advertising on any website was the very top of the page. This made sense since the banner ad is immediately visible at the very beginning of the page load and requires no scrolling. Most web visitors are likely to ignore a banner that is near the bottom of the page that requires scrolling down.

Banner advertising is still a hundred times more effective with a banner advert placed at the top of the page rather than the bottom of the page, however, there is also evidence that suggests that banner advertising is most effective in increasing web site traffic when ads are placed next to the right scroll bar, usually in the lower right-hand corner of the homepage or at least 1/3 down the page.

This placement may generate a higher click-through rate and increased web site traffic than ads at the top of the page. This news should be particularly good for Webmasters on a tight budget when it comes to advertising because the ads on the right-side of the page are typically smaller dimensions than ads running at the top, which typically means cheaper banner advertising rates.

So don't feel like you have to purchase the highest priced ad, with the largest size dimensions, placed at the very top of the page, to benefit from increased web site traffic.