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"Editor\u2019s note:\u00A0As Israeli startup BannerPlay rolls out its 'banner ads for everyone' service, this report\u00A0originally published by Israel\u2019s NoCamels blog\u00A0looks at the story behind the company.\r\n\r\nSuccessfully advertising on the Internet is not an easy feat for small and medium businesses with limited budgets. While Google and Facebook have opened the gates of advertising to small businesses, banner ads are still monopolized by larger businesses with strong buying power. Israeli company\u00A0BannerPlay\u00A0is now offering professional banner ads, using a pay-per-click (PPC) business model.\r\n\r\n\u201CBannerPlay is basically an end-to-end solution, a system that generates banner ads very simply,\u201D BannerPlay Head of Marketing Niv Calderon tells NoCamels. \u201CInstead of hiring a designer to create the banner, then buy the media and then use some sort of analytic tool to get statistics \u2013 we offer a one-stop-shop solution.\u201D\r\n\r\nThe company uses a \u201CGoogle-like\u201D method, buying\u00A0the ad space online and placing the banners created by customers on various Web pages. The customer is billed using a pay-per-click method, which means they allocate a certain budget for their campaign, which remains online until the budget runs out.\r\n\r\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=paZd_s057jY\r\n\r\nThe company says that customers can make real-time adjustment to their campaign, according to the statistical data BannerPlay offers its users. In addition, customers can create as many banners as they like for each campaign. \u201CWe want to make our banner-creating system as accessible as Google Ads,\u201D says Calderon.\r\n\r\nThe startup was founded last January by Rafi Ton (CEO) and Yoad Gidron (CTO). According to Calderon, the two were involved in creating banner ads for major brands, and decided to make the popular advertising platform more accessible to smaller clients. Calderon tells NoCamels: \u201CThey said: \u2018let\u2019s create this for everyone, so that whoever wants a banner ad could have it easily and not spend tens of thousands of dollars on a campaign.\u2019\u201D\r\n\r\n\r\nIt\u2019s all about usability\r\nWhat BannerPlay claims to achieve is quite ambitious. The six-employee Israeli startup wants to rival Google as a prominent tool for affordable, effective online advertising. Calderon tells NoCamels that the company believes its tall order is achievable by simplifying the user interface, so that anyone can create a professional-looking internet campaign. Once generating the banner, the user can decide whether to let BannerPlay choose where to advertise it, or embed it themselves using an embed code.\r\n\r\nAlthough the process is pretty much automated, the company insists that users with special requests, such as limiting target audiences, will have control over where their campaign is displayed.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\n\u201COur interface is so simple it\u2019s crazy,\u201D Calderon claims, \u201Cyou can design your banner ad within five minutes. We have dozens of ready-made templates and we also offer free tailor-made designs for people who buy $200 worth of media.\u201D The company also offers ready-made in-banner game templates, such as wheel of fortune and crossword puzzles, which allow more interactivity with the user.\r\n\r\nBannerPlay has some more advanced features, which are designed to increase engagement. \u201CWe allow users to embed YouTube videos, contact forms and Facebook \u2018likes\u2019 in the banners,\u201D says Calderon, \u201Cso that you don\u2019t even necessarily have to set up a landing page for your campaign.\u201D\r\n\r\n[caption id=&amp;quot;attachment_519522&amp;quot; align=&amp;quot;alignnone&amp;quot; width=&amp;quot;520&amp;quot;] The Founders: Yoad Gidron and Rafi Ton[/caption]\r\nCreating an advertising ecosystem\r\nBannerPlay\u2019s next step is developing a network of designers and game developers, who will be paid whenever their template is utilized. For instance, if an advertiser uses a certain designer\u2019s template, whenever the banner ad is clicked, the designer will get a small share of the revenue. \u201CA major focus of ours is developing a strong social community of designers and game developers,\u201D says Calderon.\r\n\r\nEventually, the company wants to create a sort of advertising ecosystem that will bring together designers, developers, advertisers and end users. The company\u2019s role in that ecosystem is buying the media, offering the banner-creating platform and advertising the banners online. \u201CWhen you advertise with Google, you don\u2019t really know where your ads will appear \u2013 but you trust them. That\u2019s what we want to achieve.\u201D\r\n\r\nThe BannerPlay dashboard is available for free online. The website currently only operates in English, but Calderon says that they are in the process of translating it to several languages.\r\n\r\nCalderon says that BannerPlay\u2019s initial funding comes from local angel investors, but would not elaborate further.\r\nThis story was\u00A0originally published\u00A0on\u00A0NoCamels,\u00A0a news website covering the latest innovations coming out of Israel.\r\n\r\n\r\n\r\nHeader image credit: Mario Tama / Getty Images"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
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