A banner ad is a graphic or image that is located on a web site, usually on the top of the page. The banner ad contains a hyperlink that links to another web page or web site and is typically used for advertising products or services.
The purposes of banner ads include redirecting potential customers to a new web site and to create or to validate awareness about a product or service.
This figure shows how a banner advertising system can work. In this example, a company creates and submits a small banner ad to a banner advertising network and selects location, time and category as the ad promotion criteria. The banner advertising network submits these ads to multiple web sites that have agreed to be part of the banner advertising network and keeps track of the transmission, selection and response to these ads. The web site system operators insert the banner ads on their web pages in specific locations.
Source: Emarketing Dictionary
