When you starting planning your Internet ad design, the best advice is to gain an understanding of some basic best practices and user expectations of this new arena.

10 good strategies to consider:

1. give yourself at least a 6-month timeline for discovery, development and implementation
2. request style guides, user demographics and traffic reports from each vendor
3. use style guides to drive creative that complements other site content
4. decide placement before design layout (banners are least strategic)
5. do not be enticed into accepting free creative for per-click fees
6. negotiate tracking to include view-throughs, user actions after campaign ends
7. set goals and A/B test your ad before a full launch to help achieve goals
8. home page may not be the best buy -- check sports/entertainment pages
9. becoming a program sponsor can bring additional ad opportunities to your buy
10. optimization (reviewing performance) may lead to dropping a vendor/page early in favor of another performing well

10 most annoying types of online ads:

1. Old-school attention-grabbing - blinking, dancing distractions
2. Play audio without warning
3. Floating, elusive ads hard to close
4. Floating video gorilla sales
5. Mouse-over land-mines
6. Viral ads when poorly done/annoying duds
7. Expanding ads
8. Ads that track users
9. Malware-laced ads usually from third-party sources, scary
10. Bait, switch, infect ads - entices to a booby-trapped web site
    

We can help your planning -- email us with any design development questions