Have Banners Been Effective for You?

I've read a lot that banner advertizing isn't taken seriously by the majority of mainstream advertizers, but still can't give up completely the idea of using banners and experimenting with then. I don't have a lot to be proud of - I mean one one banner can perform better than another, but I've never been happy with either performance.
So I wonder if you use banner advertizing and how successful this is in your case.
Can you share any good sites and blogs with tips how to improve banners performance.
What's considered to be a good CTR?

Banners are not working the way CPC ads work, because their primary reason is to create a brand not traffic/sales.

So it depends on what do you want. For an established site banners are good because you want people to remember your name, while for a new one a targeted cpc campaign is better as it can bring in direct results.

From a consumer and publisher point of view
(I don't pay to make my site appear in banners, but others do pay to put banners on my site)
banners are quite useful.
Even if I don't click on them, seeing them often on a website I visit on a frequent basis, will make me remember that particular logo, and will make them as established companies on the web to my subconscious mind.
I know that it might not be true always, but even if I don't give a bit of attention to banners, they are on the page, and in a way or the other, if they are well placed it is something you can't help... your mind will pick them up anyway.

Banners advertising goal is different than PPC's campaigns. They do not bring conversions, clearly, the CTR and rate conversion is very small.
There are good for awareness; and keep in mind that it is known that people search a lot for brand terms, so I will suggest that a PPC campaign ran after a banner advertising campaign could have a higher conversion rate than a simple PPC campaign.
More, depending on the link and the Alt text you use for banners, it could improve your Page Rank and so influence a bit your rankings in search engines.

Try running a banner on a blog for a month, and then get the blogger to write a post about your service at week 3.

Maybe if I will use a good banner it would be effective it would attract visitors.

I once placed the banner of my blog on CSS Mania. It was expensive, and ineffective too. So, always look out for free, and best, options..

i think Use simple words in your banner text. This is important because you wouldn?t want to overwhelm the viewers as they pass by. The lesser the number of words used to get your message across, the better is it for the readability of your banner. If people will be driving by, they will only be able to see the banner for about 5 to 7 seconds depending on its size and location. If the banner is placed in an area where there?s a lot of foot traffic, people will look at it for longer. Take these factors into mind when deciding on the number of words. Including catchy phrases and company slogans are a good idea too.