From a recent WebProNews article by Chris Crum called Curing Banner Blindness:

Many people think that banner advertising on the Internet is all but dead. They cite things like "banner blindness" and lack of conversions.

I'll say this: Poor and ineffective banner advertising is dead. And guess what. It was never alive to begin with. Banner advertising itself is alive and well. Why else do you think you still see it everywhere?

Yes, "banner blindness" exists, but your job as an advertiser is to cure it. This means coming up with an ad that people can't help but acknowledge.

Chris Crum goes on to explain that your ad must command attention, but doesn't have to be bells-and-whistles to be effective. Sometimes simple is better.

But I had a "can-I-get-an-Amen!?" moment at this paragraph:

It's Not Just About the Clicks

Of course, clicks and conversions aren't the only important factors in banner advertising. The branding that banner ads can provide can be much more valuable than an immediate conversion. And if you advertise in the right place, it can build your reputation in the subconcious of potential customers. "Advertising in a reputable network can be of great advantage to a small company. This leads to building credibility which will lead to sales in the long run," says Coppersmith. "You're often perceived to be as good as the company you keep."

Even if they ignore your ad as a result of "banner blindness", that doesn't mean that your company isn't leaving an impression in the back of their mind. Perhaps they don't have a need for you right then anyway. But should the need for what you provide arise in the future, they just might recall seeing your logo somewhere and associate you with that very need. Isn't that priceless?

Thank you!

How much does a magazine ad cost? Thousands of dollars or more, right? Can you click and convert immediately through a magazine, television or radio ad? How about a sporting event sponsorship or the side of a bus? No! The ad is there to build brand and influence a customer subconsciously.

Where are people spending a lot of time online? Social networks! And people spend a lot of time in Facebook - for some, even more than watching TV or reading the newspaper.

Even though on social networks a person is not actively looking for products and services like in a search engine, is that there are not a ton of ads competing for your attention. With organic search plus PPC ads, you're barraged with text-only results, up to 20 options per page. A Facebook ad competes with what you're doing, but it stands alone.

Facebook has the ability to deliver geo-targeted and demographically targeted ads. (Whether it executes this well is another story, I've seen US offers shown to me here in Canada, which could be poor set-up by the advertiser or a glitch in Facebook's system).

So if you're going to use Facebook for branding:

• Select a Pay-Per-Click model - if nobody clicks that's GOOD, you still get free branding.
• Do geo-target your ads, and target demographically and psychographically as much as you can.
• Make your name, logo, web URL and/or physical address clear on your ad. Combine this brand messaging rather than a specific offer or call-to-action.
  
• Ads in the newsfeed are more likely to be noticed, as they are slipped in with information about friends - but they are also likely to be despised as intrusive by Facebook users.
• Ads on games like Scrabulous can be effective because they are large, but when someone is playing a Scrabulous move, he/she is not going to click your offer but will see your ad. Make it beautiful and memorable.
  

For many smaller companies, entrepreneurs, retailers and web 2.0 startups who can't afford traditional media, Facebook is still cheap branding!