Anna VintsevskaBanner ads are essential for boosting traffic and enhancing brand visibility. However, maximizing their effectiveness demands careful banner ad monitoring and analysis. Businesses can leverage advanced technology and data analytics to analyze, track, optimize, and monitor banner ads thoroughly. A well-crafted banner ad not only showcases products or services effectively but also encourages viewers to take action.
In this blog post, we’ll unpack how banner ads work, share valuable tips for effective display ad monitoring, and even suggest a couple of must-have tools for tracking their performance effectively. Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or an aspiring newbie learning the ropes of the craft, mastering banner ad monitoring can significantly elevate your ad campaigns. Read on for essential insights to enhance your advertising efforts. Let’s get started!
What is banner ad monitoring and how does it work?
Banner ad monitoring or display ad monitoring is a systematic process of tracking, analyzing, and assessing the performance of banner ads across digital platforms. By tracking essential metrics and performance indicators, marketers can assess the effectiveness of their banner ads and make data-driven adjustments to optimize the campaign. Effective monitoring includes analyzing impressions, clicks, and click-through rates, and utilizing pixels and cookies for deeper insights.
6 Ways for banner ad monitoring
With effective banner advertising monitoring, marketers can fine-tune targeting, improve creatives, and boost overall campaign performance. Leveraging these data-driven insights helps businesses maximize their advertising impact, driving better results for the stakeholders.
Pixels
One of the most common methods to monitor banner ads performance involves using pixels. A pixel is a tiny image embedded on a website or blog; when someone visits the site, their browser loads the pixel, allowing advertisers to count impressions.
Cookies
Cookies, unlike pixels, are small text files placed on a visitor's device when they visit a site. Advertisers use cookies to track and analyze how many times a banner ad appears to a particular visitor and to retarget them with follow-up ads.
A/B testing
A/B testing, or split testing, allows advertisers to compare two versions of a banner ad to determine which performs best. Elements such as headlines, calls-to-action (CTAs), images, and layouts can be tested.
To run an A/B test, create two versions of your banner ad and monitor each one’s performance. The better-performing ad can then become the “control” for further testing. Split testing helps optimize banner ads for maximum effectiveness.
Heat maps
Heat maps are data visualizations that highlight where users click on a webpage. They are valuable tools for understanding where viewers are focusing and what content captures the most attention. Using heat maps, you can track where users click on your banner ad to see if they interact with it. Heat maps reveal high-interest areas of your banner ad, helping you identify elements that work well and those that might need improvement.
Click-Through Rate
Click-through rate (CTR) measures how often people who see your banner ad click on it — a higher CTR indicates a more effective ad. To calculate CTR, divide the number of clicks by the number of impressions, then multiply by 100. For instance, if your ad has 100 impressions and 10 clicks, your CTR is 10%. To increase CTR, try adding eye-catching images or a compelling call-to-action, like offering a discount or free shipping for users who click on the ad.
Tracking links
Tracking links are unique URLs with UTM parameters, designed to monitor banner ad performance. Advertisers use these links to track how many users clicked on their ad and navigated to the landing page. Creating a tracking link is straightforward—just add UTM parameters to the end of your URL.
Here are the five primary UTM parameters you can add to your banner ad’s URL:
utm_source – identifies the website that referred the visitor to your page.
utm_medium – shows the traffic channel (e.g., search, email, social network).
utm_campaign – indicates the specific campaign that generated the visit.
utm_content – tracks which specific link within the content was clicked.
utm_term – reveals the keyword that led to the click.
Using tracking links allows you to monitor your banner campaign’s overall success and analyze its components, such as keywords or specific content sections. Banner advertising is a proven approach for promoting products, services, and brands online. However, to ensure your banner ads are truly effective, it's essential to know how to monitor their performance.
7 Best tools for banner ad monitoring
Now let us take a look at some of the useful tools you can use to monitor banner ads and the efficiency of your campaigns in general. Some of these tools are freely available, some are not. As a rule of thumb, freely available ad monitoring tools offer limited functionality, but they can still be perfectly viable for many marketers. Here are some of those.
Google Ads Transparency Center: competitor ads
While many new companies may prioritize Facebook and TikTok for advertising (for good reason), Google Ads remain a cornerstone in any marketer's toolkit. The Google Ads Transparency Center displays ads from verified advertisers over the past 365 days, and political ads dating back up to seven years. Users can search by advertiser or website name and filter results by topic (political or otherwise), time frame, location, and format.
The Meta (Facebook) ad library
Launched by Facebook (now Meta), the Meta Ad Library is a valuable tool for marketers looking to monitor competitor ads. Within the library, you can search for topics or specific advertisers to view relevant ads. A keyword filter allows you to refine results further, making it easy to find specific campaigns, such as Black Friday promotions or particular products.
Although you won’t find performance metrics like CTR or impressions, clicking on an ad reveals additional details, such as multiple ad variations and start dates for each ad version. It’s worth noting that only active ads appear in the Meta Ad Library, except for political ads, which are stored for up to seven years from their start date. While you’ll need a Facebook account to access this service, there is no cost to explore the ad library’s content.
SEMrush Ads History
Unlike many tools that only show ad visuals, SEMrush goes a step further with its Ads History feature. By entering a keyword, SEMrush reveals all domains that have bid on that keyword and held a PPC ad in Google’s top 8 paid positions over the past year.
In addition, the tool provides data on ad traffic, pricing, and the total number of ads for a given domain. While CTR or ROI data isn’t provided, the insights are valuable for understanding competitor bidding strategies, identifying high-competition periods, and uncovering new keyword opportunities. Ads History is part of SEMrush’s comprehensive platform (packed with tools for SEO and PPC) and is available for $129.95 per month.
Adbeat
Adbeat is a competitive intelligence and ad monitoring solution that enables businesses to track their competitors' online advertising strategies. Its key features include detailed insights into the design and content of competitors' ads, as well as information on where those ads are being placed, which helps identify the most effective platforms and websites. Additionally, Adbeat provides performance metrics that measure how well these ads are performing, including metrics such as impressions, clicks, and conversions.
AdPlexity
AdPlexity is a comprehensive ad intelligence platform that encompasses a wide range of online advertisements. Its primary features include analysis of ad creatives, which evaluates both the visual and textual elements of ads, and insights into landing pages that ads direct users to, aiding in the understanding of the user journey. Additionally, AdPlexity provides data on traffic sources, detailing where the traffic originates, including various ad networks and platforms. The platform also supports multi-platform monitoring, allowing for mobile display ad monitoring, desktop, and native formats.
AdSpy
AdSpy specializes in monitoring and analyzing competitors' online advertising campaigns. Its features include detailed information on the design and content of ads, as well as insights into how competitors target their audience based on demographics and interests. The platform also provides performance metrics that measure the effectiveness of ads, including engagement rates and conversions. Additionally, AdSpy covers a range of ad networks and platforms, offering a comprehensive view of the competitive landscape.
Brandly360
Brandly360 is specifically designed for e-commerce and specializes in monitoring banner ads. Its key features include tracking banner frequency to monitor how often ads are displayed, which aids in understanding ad saturation and effectiveness. The platform also offers user-based scoring, providing actionable insights based on user interactions and engagement with the ads. Tailored for online product promotion, Brandly360 is particularly relevant for e-commerce businesses.
Each of these tools offers unique features that can help businesses gain a competitive edge by understanding and optimizing their online advertising strategies. However, a successful use of those platforms requires relevant expertise and technical prowess. Each of the tools presented above demands a degree of technical expertise from the user, so it will be a good idea to partner up with a reliable AdTech provider.
Partner with TeqBlaze – an industry trusted
AdTech provider
TeqBlaze is a reliable partner specializing in custom AdTech solutions, particularly in the realm of programmatic advertising. Here are some key aspects of what we offer:
Custom programmatic solutions: TeqBlaze provides tailor-made programmatic platforms designed to align with specific business objectives. These platforms help businesses manage, optimize, and scale their ad operations efficiently.
White-label platforms: We offer white-label solutions, allowing companies to brand and customize their media-buying and media-selling technologies. This includes demand-side platforms (DSPs) and supply-side platforms (SSPs).
Multi-channel support: Our solutions cover various digital channels, including display advertising monitoring, native, mobile monitor banner ads, in-app ads, video, audio, in-game, and digital out-of-home advertising.
Advanced targeting and user insights: TeqBlaze maximizes ad revenue through advanced targeting and user insights, while also prioritizing user privacy and compliance.
With over a decade of industry experience and a strong team of programmatic experts, TeqBlaze has collaborated with numerous businesses to develop platforms that drive the online advertising and marketing sectors. Here are a couple of examples.
Enhanced monetization and platform capabilities for Baldwin
By implementing TeqBlaze’s white-label SSP (Supply-Side Platform) and Ad Exchange solutions, Boldwin aimed to improve monetization strategies and optimize ad delivery processes. The collaboration involved a step-by-step installation and customization roadmap, which allowed Boldwin to tailor the technology to their specific needs quickly and effectively. This approach enabled Boldwin to access demand partners more efficiently and serve video and OTT ads with greater precision.
As a result of this partnership, Boldwin saw significant improvements in campaign performance and revenue growth. The customized platform components and strategies developed by TeqBlaze helped Boldwin achieve its goals faster, enhancing overall media-trading capabilities.
From GAM to full control
US-based AdTech company transitioned from using Google Ad Manager (GAM) to TeqBlaze’s white-label SSP (Supply-Side Platform) and Ad Exchange. This switch was driven by changes in Google’s billing policy, which introduced costs for unmonetized ad requests, significantly impacting the client’s revenue. By adopting TeqBlaze’s platform, the client was able to recover over 30% of previously lost revenue, gaining greater control over their ad operations and optimizing their bidding and pricing strategies.
The transition to TeqBlaze’s platform provided seamless integration with various demand partners, including Google ADX, and allowed the client to expand their reach and increase competition for their ad inventory. This led to higher ad yields and improved profitability.
These are just some of the examples of TeqBlaze’s AdTech expertise. We are prepared to start a new success story with you!
Final word
Banner ad tracking allows your business to assess the performance of your marketing efforts and campaigns on a larger scale. This process begins with URL, pixel, and cookie tracking to analyze how users engage with your brand. It is enhanced by search-focused and social-focused tools that help identify where your ads are effective, where they fall short, and what improvements are needed to boost user engagement and drive sales conversions.
Successful banner ad monitoring would not be possible without advanced advertising technology and data analytics. You must understand what you observe, and professionally build analytical platforms that will make it much easier for you to make sense of the monitoring of banner ads and avoid costly errors.
