The other day Collis [of FreelanceSwitch and PSDtuts fame] Tweeted on the lackadaisical approach towards banner advertising these days.

For those of you who don’t know, there is an Internet Advertising Bureau that prescribes standards for Ad Units (your Google ad blocks for instance).

What Are Ad Unit Standards

If I KISS it, then it is making sure that the size of the banners you approve on your site is the same as any other website on the web.

Meaning that if I as an advertiser want to put an ad on two popular blogs, I don’t need to make two different banners to do that.

What is the Need of Standardization

The goal of IAB’s standards like in the case of any other central organization is to create a universal of database of acceptable practices. This is to streamline the working of the industry (online advertising in this case) for it’s growth.

To bolster the online advertising industry it is important that all people part of it (publishers like us and advertisers) standardize our offering so as to provide the least of hassles for the Advertisers/Agencies.

It reduces the cost involved in marketing. This is because business won’t need to make multiple ad creatives to promote their brand on multiple platforms on the web. This would mean traditional advertisers would become more open to test online advertising space.

Standardization is important for validation. Well if not important it certainly makes its presence felt. Most designs and layouts are made with the likelihood of ads placed on them. Their designs and layouts therefore need to keep the advertising standards in mind for a broader reach.

It is sort of necessary for Ad Inventory management and deployment. This is especially true for those who own a network of sites in a certain niche. Like if you have a 3 to 4 blogs on finance and an advertiser looking to promote a financial product, then instead of adding multiple zones in OpenAds one can simply pull the code from a single point. (It might have gone over the head of some of you I guess).

But The Standards Are Gone

At least that’s what I have been seeing on many popular sites these days. They have their own inventory management specs suiting to their own design sensibilities. As these grow they will need to bring in a more sophisticated inventory management system. They will need to tie up with Ad networks to make the most of their unsold inventory. Basically to run the site to its truest income potential.

And at at such a point it will be a mad dash towards standards. And a major chunk of investment in revamping the layout. I think it should be obvious why. And this is true with the case of any site that plans to grow big. The one’s that don’t will shut shop after some time anyway.

The solutions of course is to stick with standards from the beginning. As part of a larger community it is important that we do.

Other Related Posts

Forward to Vision: Unlocking an Entrepreneur’s Greatest Tool

Small Talk: Money Spent is Networking Gained

Basics of Making your Web Business Big

Initiative, Follow Up and World Peace

Will Writing be the Next Big Money Maker on the Internet