Love them or hate them, banner ads are one of the dominant forms of advertising online. You see banners on nearly all sites including web pages of major search engines. Due to the widespread acceptance of the standard 468x60 banner ad size, buyers can easily secure placements at most sites, and publishers can accept ads from most advertisers.

Banner ads were initially judged primarily on the basis of click-through rate (CTR). In the early days of the Web, click-through rates were generally much higher than they are now, perhaps due to the novelty factor. Other causes for the decline in CTR may include technical limitations, the awkward horizontal shape, poor banner design, an excessive percentage of run-of-network buys, and accumulated bad experiences of Web surfers.

"Banners never work" is a common refrain from the anti-banner crowd. Although click-through rates have gone consistently downward, the same can be said of banner ad prices. It is still possible to achieve a click-through rate many times the industry average by combining good placement and design.

In the fast world on today, banner ads need to meet the challenges of an impatient demanding audience. It has to have animation to attract attention yet it must be not irritating else it will lose effectivity. Hence, special emphasis must be given to the design of banner.