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Banner ads seemed to have gone the way of the Dodo bird. In essence these forms of advertising on the web were relegated to link exchange programs as Pay Per Click (PPC) advertising came to dominance. PPC relies more heavily on target consumer activity and remains a no-frills, cost effective way to reach targeted consumers.

However, today we find Flash driven banner advertising that can be essentially a video that makes the advertising stand out.

Google has become involved in bringing banner ads back. What was once considered a dinosaur is now getting a second look as an enhanced form of PPC advertising.

No longer does the simple PPC advertising have to be the only option for online business.

The common problem with link exchange programs has been that businesses can only work with a comparatively small pool of participants. The price is right, but it never really provides the jump-start to a business that other Search Engine Optimization (SEO) strategies can produce.

In many cases link exchange has been a bit like throwing darts wearing a blindfold ' you never really know what your shooting at and even after you've let go of the dart you have no idea what, if anything, it hit.

The value behind the Google brand allows some hope that banner ads with all their glitz and glamour can provide a super-sized PPC experience that is targeted, attractive and effective.

If you're an online business owner you know how important it is to find marketing skills that work. You most likely are looking for strategies that are designed to assist you long-term in search engine rankings as well as shorter-term PPC strategies that drive targeted customers to your site in the near term.

I know it can feel a bit like throwing your money to the wind and hoping somebody will recognize you as the source, but many times advertising just doesn't afford the opportunity to quantify the effectiveness of the effort.

Advertising can be a bit like planting a garden. You till the soil and add compost. Then you plant the seeds, weed the rows, water the soil and wait. It can seem as if nothing is happening, but underneath the ground the soil is about to yield a living plant that in turn will yield a vegetable. The end result of your spring planting won't be realized until the fall.

PPC advertising may be a little better than that, but it can still be a point of multiple impressions that ultimately result in a greater level of trust that in the end results in an online sale.

The question is, will banner ads now become a significant part of PPC programs?