IT contractors helping companies make the most of advertising on their website will benefit from a new technological discovery, it has been claimed.

Developers at the University of Toronto claim that their new program makes putting internet ads on websites "easier and more profitable".

At the moment, ads are currently only available in three or four specific sizes, which means sites must be changed to work around them.

But the University of Toronto electrical and computer engineering associate professor Parham Aarabi says his new programme allows ads to be resized automatically to fit any web space.

He said of the development: "Currently, a significant portion of usable website spaces are not used for advertising because the standard size ads don't fit.

"Our technology is the first ever to conform ads to any available website space in an automated and practical way."

According to the Direct Marketing Association, digital marketing is best used in conjunction with traditional marketing methods.