subject: HOW TO USE BANNER ADS TO GET RESULTS [print this page] HOW TO USE BANNER ADS TO GET RESULTS HOW TO USE BANNER ADS TO GET RESULTS
If you have not noticed by now, websites are loaded up with banner advertisements. A lot of people have great success with it, while other people struggle with making any money driving traffic to their site with their banner. In this article we will discuss how to get the results your looking for using banner advertisement.
TARGETING TRAFFIC
If you are going to place a banner on a website, you need to find a good targeted website to use your banner on. You are looking for websites that targets a specific audience with interest in what you do. If you are placing a banner for sales in makeup, You certainly wouldn't place your banner on a male dominated website.
EXPOSURE ON THE WEB SITE PAGE
One of the biggest problems with placing a banner on a website page is that you may not be getting the prime spot on the website or on the page you are wanting to place your banner on. This is two fold. First of all you may not be placing your banner on the right pages within the website you are placing your banner on. Let me give you an example. Lets say for argument sake that Craigslist allows banners to be placed on their website. When you go to Craigslist and land on their first page, how long do you stay on that page? Not long right? Me either. When I land on the first page of Craigslist its just the place I go to get to the page I'm searching for. So placing a banner on the landing page of craigslist wouldn't make much sense. You want to place your banner on a page within the site where people spend a lot of time. One great way to find out which pages get a lot of exposure is by looking for pages that you spend a lot of time on. Interesting articles or blogs that keep you intrigued are great places to put your banner up simply because if you are spending a lot of time on that site, you have to assume that other people with the same interest are as well
The other problem is where you are having your ad placed on the web page. Statistics and studies have shown that because of the nature of human behavior and habits, people read from the top left and then work their way down to the bottom of the page. When you can get your banner at the top of a web page and or to the top left of a page, you will get more clicks.
So what sites are great sites to place my banners
You want to target high traffic ranking sites. One good way to find out which sites are high ranking sites is to go to http://www.alexa.com With Alexa, the lower the number is, the more number of people go to and spend time on their site. Lets say you found a great site like http://www.entrepreneur.com and you wanted to post a banner on their site. You would go to alexa and type in their website. You would see that their Alexa traffic ranking is under 3000. Their traffic rank in the US is under 1000. With hundreds of thousands of websites out there, this would be a great site to place a banner ad. Another great way is to do some keyword research. If you are an affiliate with a company that helps other make money online, then you would type in Google "make money online" See which sites come up then search them sites on alexa to see where their traffic ranking is.
Negotiate your real estate and price
Most places will try to give you the place they want you to be on their webpage. You have to be firm with the real estate on the web page. A lot of websites will try to place you on the bottom of their page. If you have to scroll down the page to see your banner, then you are not in the prime real estate that you need to be.
You have the option when you are negotiating the price with most places weather or not to pay by CPM (cost per impression) or CPC (cost per click) You want to pay per click or CPC. An Impression is every time someone clicks on the page you have your banner on, weather they see your banner or not, you will have to pay for it. I can't see that being very productive for your wallet. However, if you are using CPC, You do not have to pay unless someone clicks on the banner and views your site. If you have a great campaign set up, chances are you can really benefit from using a banner to get people to buy from you.
Questions to ask the person you are posting your banner with
First of all, specify what page you want to be on
Be sure you can pay per click. Not pay per impression
Tell them you do not want a long term contract because you are still testing to see which sites will give you the best results.
Ask them if they will offer you a discount if you commit to a long term contract later.
Tell them you want a guaranteed placement for your banner.
Find out if you are going to be rotating your banner with other people. If so, find out how many other banners will be rotating in the same spot as yours.
If you follow all of these steps, you can almost guarantee to get great results with banner advertisement. You must set it in your mind that you want the real estate of your choosing. you must be persistent when you negotiate. Otherwise you may not get the results you were hoping to get.
