Banner Advertising - 7 Considerations, My Approach and My Results
Banner Advertising - 7 Considerations, My Approach and My Results
As a relative newbie at doing business on the internet working from home I soon realized that I had a tremendous amount to learn in the copywriting skills area. I knew that some time down the road I would have to acquire such skills but at that particular time I needed to start advertising right away. It is for that reason that I began to look around for different ways to advertise at a reasonable cost without having to utilize these vital skills at the outset. My research took me to classified ads; both free and paid, article marketing, blogging, directories, email marketing, and a host of other avenues but most of them seemed to require writing skill I did not possess at that time. So what to do?
I then came across Banner Advertising. What is Banner Advertising? The definition of a banner ad is a relatively short form of advertising (in words that is), but graphically appealing, which entails embedding such advertisement message into a web page which draws a lot of traffic. When clicked on by someone who has an interest in the subject matter of the banner ad, they will be automatically linked to the actual website of the advertiser where the full advertising message can be read.
After I had defined what a banner ad was I soon realized that I still had some serious research to do if I was to use such a form of advertising:
a) I had to find a website that would interest my particular market niche.
b) I had to find a website that had sufficient traffic of those who may be interested in my service.
c) I had to have a good concise message graphically presented in a professional and appealing way.
d) I also had to decide what size banner ad to use for maximum impact
e) If I had the choice, I had to decide where to place the banner ad in the website.
f) I had to decide whether to have any animation in the banner ad. This is good as an eye catcher.
g) I had to find a website that did not charge an arm and a leg to place my banner ad.
Let's take a look at each of these issues and how I approached them:
Website - The website I had to find had to be a site that would appeal to my market niche. I defined my niche as someone was dissatisfied with their current lifestyle, which was looking to start a home-based business in order to have sufficient resources that he/she could work at home. This would also allow them to work at their own pace doing something that they were really passionate about which would produce sufficient income to sustain a more acceptable lifestyle. So as I looked at what was out there, I found three sites that seemed to fit the bill, with one in particular whose name included words that appeared to be aimed at my niche person. Which of the three was better? And, could I afford the ad cost? How could I check it out?
Message - The key to banner ad copy is that it has to get to the point in a hurry, has to be graphically appealing and if possible has to have been well tested in the market place. In my case the company I am associated with had several banner ads to choose from which have been around for sufficient time to have been market tested. Each had different words in the copy but all had the same theme. The other thing that they offered was animation. I felt that this was a plus as an eye catcher and selected an animated ad. A word of caution, make sure that the publisher you are dealing with accepts animation, some don't.
Traffic - I had to be sure that the site I had finally chose had sufficient traffic so that I would have enough "eyes" on the banner ad to get some action. In discussing my research with my sponsor she gave me a rule of thumb and the name of a website, http://www.alexa.com which helped me make that decision. http://www.alexa.com ranks all the websites on the net for their traffic. The rule of thumb that she gave me was that anything under 100,000 ranking was worthy of consideration. Given that only two of the websites I had selected were below the 100,000 mark, one in the 70,000 range the other in the 20,000 range I decided that I would approach the publishers regarding availability of space, location on the page, acceptable size of ad, and finally price.
Space Availability and Location - Obviously the 20,000 range site was more popular and by consequence had no availability in the near future and, when I did enquire regarding price, this was way out of my "wheelhouse". So I was left with the site I originally favored and was pleasantly surprised to find that there was availability and the location they offered was "above the fold" A word about the location. If possible it is important that your banner ad be viewed as the page is opened, this is considered "above the fold". If someone has to scroll down the likelihood of your ad being seen is significantly reduced.
Size - Again it is important that your banner ad stands out. In my view it has to be of sufficient size to make an impression on the reader. The internet industry has appeared to have settled on some popular sizes as standard but what I found was that if publishers want your business they will accommodate you. For example the location available was 350x250 and the only ad size I had available from my company's back office near that size was 250x250. The publisher resized it and we were in business.
Price - Not inconsequential to our discussion but before I get into this it is important to have some terms defined:
a) Impression: Each time your banner ad loads on a website, this is considered an "impression".
b) Click: Each time someone clicks on your actual banner; this is counted as a "click."
c) Conversions: When someone fills out the form on your website, this is considered a "conversion" (or lead).
Pricing - There are several methods beginning with the one that was presented to me and I ended up accepting:
i) A Sum Certain: This depends on the location, size and the defined period of time.
ii) CPM - Cost Per Thousand: This is a method of measuring how much you will pay for a banner ad. Quite often you are charged "on a CPM basic" which means you are charged for every thousand impressions. A "$2 CPM" means you pay $2.00 for every thousand impressions your banner ad receives. Be careful when dealing with sites that charge more than $4 to $5 CPM for banner ad placements. $2.00-$2.50 is ideal, but we've seen sites out there charging up to $15 CPM, which is exorbitant.
iii) CPA - Cost Per Action: This is a method of measuring how much you will pay for a banner ad, based on the actions taking. An action can be considered a click, or it can be considered a conversion. If a website offers banner advertising on a "CPA basis" this means you only pay when someone actually clicks on your ad (as opposed to impressions).
Measurement of Results - It is important in any business to know what you expect for what you are paying for. This is no different in purchasing banner ads. A couple of useful yardsticks are as follows:
a) CTR - Click Through Rate: This is the ratio of impressions to clicks. For example, if there are 1000 impressions (or page views) on a website, and 10 people click on the banner ad, that would be a CTR of 1%
b) Cost Per Conversion: How much it costs you to get one lead. If you spend $30 and you received 8 leads, than your cost per conversion is $3.75. Cost Per Action - If your specified action is a "click," and you spent $30 to get 100 clicks, than your cost per action, or cost per click, would be $0.33.
In summary, as someone starting out marketing on the internet with little or no copywriting skills banner advertising is one method of advertising that can be of tremendous help. Of the initial methods that I chose this has produced the greatest result, some 65% of my leads list originated from the one site I selected and I continue to advertise on that same site. I vary the message from time to time but feel with some continuity on the same site and an ongoing relationship with the publisher this will produce even better results.
I would be interested in hearing from anyone regarding their experience using banner ads, whether you are new to internet marketing or an old pro!
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