subject: Become a Banner Ad Expert Starting Today Series III [print this page] Become a Banner Ad Expert Starting Today Series III
Become a Banner Ad Expert Starting Today Series III
This is the third series in a miniseries called "Become a Banner Ad Expert Starting Today". In the first couple issues I covered topics like "What is a Banner Ad, the Different Kinds of Banner Ads, and How to advertise" and many more. If you have not read the first two series of this miniseries, I can only suggest you go back and read the previous two so you don't become lost.
Thinking about buying advertising
If you are thinking about buying your own advertising spots on different websites, there are a few different ways you could go about it. You could do one or a combination of the following ideas:
Approach each website on your own
Hire a Advertising Company
Join a Banner ad exchange program
Start Your own Affiliate Group
I am going to go into much detail on each of these which will help educate you on the pros and cons of each idea. Just like anything else in our wonderful world of ours, banner ads are not perfect either.
Approaching each Website on Your Own
First I would like to say if you are doing this, you have got way too much time on your hands. Approaching each individual website is a very time consuming activity but with you doing this, you have more control. When you place all your own banner ads you can really investigate the website, their content they provide their readers and all the many stats that each site is ranked on. You also have the ability to chose where you want your ad placed, while many sites have many options; obviously the prime spots normally carry a prime cost. There are a few angles you would want to consider when you are approaching a website to market on.
Target Small Websites when you target a small website, you normally have less competition, lower advertising costs and if you are on the right site and in the right niche; your clicks and leads could become very fluent.
Target Large Websites If you decide to go after the large websites, you are going to be competing against thousands of other advertisers. The old saying of Supply and Demand really holds a lot of truth here. With a very large website, the publishers know they have hundreds of thousands or close to a million of followers and advertisers want to be part of the action. Owners of the website now have in their power to request and obtain tens of thousands dollars for one advertisement of one banner sized at 125x125. Most large sites use the CPM method in which as you remember from my previous series of articles; the CPM is based on impressions. Based on CPM your ad could be shown for one day or thirty days, so definitely take this into consideration before signing up.
No matter which site you decide to go with, always look for a "advertise with us" tab or link. Find out what packages they offer and compare a few different sites. Another idea is to remember the economy we are in right now. Don't settle for the "retail cost" that they are asking; find a phone number and call to see if you could negotiate a better price.
Hire a Advertising Company
If you are like me and don't have tons of spare time on your hands than this could be your saving grace. When you contact a Advertising Company you will find that their services for the most part are pretty thorough. They do a great job of obtaining all your information, the try to meet all your requests and require your HTML code for your banner, although many can make a banner for you if you would like. One of the great things about hiring an advertising company is that they already have established a long meaningful relationship with many site owners. This is a huge advantage to you since they have probably established a much discounted rate. Another thing you will want to consider and be able to understand if you are told this; but many advertising companies will only work with you if your account meets their requirements. Their requirements normally are having a large company or spending a certain amount of money per month or annually.
If you are an owner of a large company or a smaller company that really wants to skyrocket your online presence a advertising company is the way to go.
Joining a Banner Ad Network Program
If you want to get out of the gate fast but don't have a ton of capital to invest then you are in luck. If you don't have the time or don't want to spend the time to negotiate prices for you to advertise on a website, rely on a Banner Ad Network. A Banner Ad Network is somewhat like a middle man that sells real estate on websites and finds advertisers to buy the space. A major drawback is that while these networks can be quite cheap, you have zero control on where or how your banner ad gets placed. Many times due to the nature of the beast and lower cost of this option, the advertiser's barley hears from the network.
My best advice to you is to really do your due diligence when it comes to networks. On occasion you may come across a site that is offering discounts on banner ad placement spots that did not previously get filled; this could be a good sign or bad, run a small ad for 30 days and check your results.
I would not be a great mentor if I did not give you a few sites to check out. While I am going to give you two different lists; you need to decide which one is best for you and what results you want.
A Few Large Impression Networks
DoubleClick
FlyCast
Burst!Media
Content Zone
A Few Large Click Through Networks
Banner Brokers
Value Click
Banner Space
eAds
Ready to Start Your Own Affiliate Group
If you are looking for a cost effective way to get your own banner ads on many other sites this could also be an answer for you. Setting up your own Affiliate Group means that you can prearrange to pay publishers a certain amount when certain results have been obtained. A specific result could be something like a certain amount of clicks or completing a sale.
This concludes series III of "Become a Banner Ad Expert Starting Today". I hope you have obtained more useful information and knowledge about banner ads and be watching for series IV that will be coming out soon.
If you have missed series I and II here is a link to them ======> http://robertstrongmarketing.info/blog-post/become-a-banner-ad-expert-starting-today/
