Creating a Banner Ad Worth Clicking on Dispop sources click-worthy banner-ad proposals from a network of designers.

Marketers across the U.S. will spend $42.3 billion on digital advertising this year, research firm eMarketer estimates, and digital display advertising will account for $17.6 billion of that. That's great news for Google, Yahoo and other digital ad giants, but for many marketers, it means throwing good money after bad: The national average for click-through rates remains a paltry 0.1 percent.

Appearance is everything when it comes to driving clicks, contends Ayal Ebert, CEO of New York City-based display advertising and retargeting platform Dispop. "Design is the most important factor," Ebert says. "You can have great targeting, optimization and tracking, but if your ad looks bad, you're not going to attract customers."

Every Dispop campaign sources more than a dozen banner-ad proposals from freelance designers across the globe, each based on the advertiser's initial creative brief. After the advertisers identify the three campaign approaches they like best, they initiate communication with the designers, suggesting revisions until the ads meet their requirements. Dispop then sends the completed banners directly to websites around the world (in-cluding Facebook), measuring impressions and clicks to determine which ad is most effective. As the results filter in, Dispop customers can shut down underperforming ads, paying only for the most successful campaign.