Ad effectiveness: text link or banner ads?

[iamsam]

I'm planning to run an ad campaign, but I can't decide whether to go for text link ads or banner (image) ads. Which would be more effective? Banner ads will probably be more expensive, but if they're more effective then it would be worth the cost.

[Vertigo]

I don't have any stats to back this up, but I believe banner ads have a higher click-through rate, which means they're more effective. Why not try running both text and banner ads, though? Run a short campaign and track the performance of both ads. The results should tell you which ad type to concentrate on.

[tigress]

I agree with Vertigo that both banner ads and link ads should be used to make your advertising more effective. Some people want to read something more about the product so the link would be better than the banner in some cases. But more importantly is where you place your ads.

[BlueGigs]

The effectiveness of your ad campaign will depend largely on the quality of your ads. Do you know your target audience? Are you offering your product/information in the most appealing and eye-catching way?

It's always a good idea to do a little preliminary testing with multiple banner ads and multiple text ad wordings, if possible. You might be shocked by the difference it makes!

[bluetrance05]

Both would be useful but I find text link ads more effective than banner ads. If you browse a website, you can find some banners noticeable and that's how they advertise their brand of products but text link ads are more significant because they are indexed in search engine optimization and they are responsible for driving traffic to your site and it will be searchable if it has backlinks and spider links working for them.