Attractive, appropriate and attention-catching banners are essential for the success of an online ad campaign. Using graphic tools like Photoshop or Paintshop Pro and spicing things up by employing animated gifs and rich media like Java, Shockwave and HTML banners you can create eye-catching ad banners that can easily grab the attention of the surfers. What actually needed is not a mere click on the banner, but whether the clicks can be converted to orders and sales.

Online ad banners used to be one of the best ways to earn money from your hobby. However they are no more popular among the present visitors as seen in the click-through rate steadily dropping from around 5% 4 years ago to less than 0.5% now. Yet, highly relevant, cleverly designed banners can definitely beat the odds. Relatively high traffic is required to make a substantial profit through banner campaign. In fact, majority of the banner advertising companies want to pay only for actual sales. Even click-throughs have become less attractive as people are paid to do so and they have no intention to buy anything.

An online ad banner could be a graphic image, a snippet of HTML or a file developed using an interactive technology like Java, Shockwave or Flash. It does not matter what tool you use to design the banner, but start with a clear definition of what you expect the banner to achieve.

For many advertisers, the only function of a banner is to entice visitors to click on it. At this point, the banner takes the role of a resume the sole aim of which is to get interviews. Designing banners with the sole purpose of generating click throughs is, however, short-sighted and could produce even adverse effects. To generate any business, you have to design a banner that should get phenomenal click-through. So it becomes essential to design a banner that attracts the right kind of people to click, instead of creating a banner that makes the viewers want to click on it though media buyers will hate to admit this fact. Moreover banners have important function-building brand awareness among the surfers. A visitor may not be attracted to your banner immediately. But if he/she sees it again and again your company name will be drilled into his/her mind and at a later time when in a shopping mood he/she will think of you, thus making your banner a great success. Developing a banner to create awareness is quite different from designing for maximum click through. A branding banner displays the brand and logo prominently whereas a "click here" banner will not display what is sold, but entice people to find it out by clicking. Several fine banners have elements of both these approaches.

Gif animation, found extensively in banner designs, makes the image file small and attracts more users than a static banner. Also animation in gif banner makes it more natural when compared to static banners. A gif animated banner, designed with unmatched creativity and proper color combination speaks out to its viewers.