Web advertising today is a vast network of pop-up ads, ads that play music and sound tracks, ads that swim across the screen, and infinitely other in your face advertising techniques used by advertisers. This article studies the different forms of Web advertising in use today, as well as the economics that are driving them. Around 1997, commercialization found its way onto the Web and the “banner ad” was born. These were the 728×90 pixel ads that you see at the top of almost every Web site today. Sites such as Yahoo charged $30, $50, $100 per thousand impressions to run banner ads on their pages in the late 90s. Where did these rates come from? These figures are what magazines typically charge for full-page color ads. Internet companies basically used the same model for banner ads. Eventually advertisers concluded that banner ads were not as effective as full-page magazine ads or TV commercials and rates began to plummet; thus newer, flashier, and more innovative methods were developed.

First, advertisers simply thought bigger is better and instituted the “sidebar ad” which are vertically orientated ads two to three times larger than a banner ad; also a sidebar ad cannot be scrolled off the screen since it stretches the entire height of the page. The sidebar ad proved to have a higher click-through rate and advertisers typically pay $1-$2 per 1,000 impressions. The next innovation came in the form of varying the shapes and sizes of banner and sidebar ads. Although advertisers pay lower fees for these smaller ads, a web page can now cram 10 ads on to a single page.

The final step in the evolution of Web advertising incorporates the use of motion. From pop-ups and pop-unders to floating ads and moving banner/side bar ads, the use of movement successfully captures the attention of any Web surfer. Pop-ups make ads unavoidable for the internet user, thus annoying many and causing the creation of pop-up blockers. However, pop-ups receive 10 to 15 times more clicks on average than banner ads and a pop-up ad will pay the Website 4 to 10 times more as well. This is the reason for the over abundance of pop-ups today.

For more on the future and economics of Pop-ups, Floating, Unicast Ads and other variations. Refer to the Following link: http://computer.howstuffworks.com/web-advertising1.htm