|
Banner Advertising: News of its demise is premature
Banner Advertising: News of its demise is premature
You have seen them all over the internet -- blinking, flashing,
animated and garish. You vow that you will not contribute to
this internet graffiti. You feel smug with your decision because
after all banner advertising is dead.
Wrong. Banner advertising is not dead -- and in fact it is still
an effective internet marketing tool. However banner advertising
has evolved -- or rather I should say successful banner
advertising has evolved. Some of the horrible eye-damaging
banner ads still exist but successful, knowledgable internet
entrepreneurs have long abandoned those marketing efforts and
instead concentrated on targeted, tasteful, and trim banner ads.
Banner ads have a bad reputation in part because of the
proliferation of banner farms that killed all the banner swap
programs (or at least made them completely ineffectual). Also we
all have memories of those hideous banners flashing across the
top of so many web sites.
Banners have come along way since then and a cleverly designed
banner can be a real asset to any advertising campaign. Also
don't forget that you don't have to use one of those big giant
banners that span the width of the screen. You can use smaller
simple ads that can fit easily into the sidebar or special box
on a web site so they can suit the design and work more
effectively.
It is also important that you pay close attention to what sites
you will choose for displaying your banner. IE. A site about web
development for your web hosting service ad or a site about
parenting for your ad promoting your potty training book.
Many text link and pay per click advertising vendors also offer
the option of banner ads. Similarly many ezine and newsletter
publishers sell space on their sites.
And savvy internet marketers are taking them up on these
advertising opportunities.
WHY USE BANNER ADVERTISING?
Consumer research historically shows that most people see an ad
several times before they take action. Banners allow you to
display your ad over a period of time, increasing the chances
that a prospect will see your ad and remember it.
Your banner ad can be targeted to specific audiences and
displayed on internet pages and sites matched to that specific
audience.
People seeing your advertisement can instantly click through to
your web site store to to learn more or to make a purchase on
the spot.
You can track your results and make adjustments to your
campaigns based on response. Analyzing your results can help you
finetune your banner, landing page, or target audience to
improve your response and sales.
Banner advertising is really a buyers market, as there is always
more banner spaces available than advertisers need or want,
which means you can find many bargains available.
IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN PLANNING YOUR BANNER AD
CAMPAIGN
There are several aspects to consider when planning out your
banner advertising campaign.
The first consideration should be your ad graphic itself. These
are usually animated GIF images but remember you want to attract
customers -- not simply attention -- and remember the overall
tone of your ad campaign when designing your graphic. Also keep
in mind that many sites limit the file size of the graphic to
somewhere between 12 and 16 KB.
Your banner can come in variety of sizes. The full banner size
is 468 x 60 pixels. Some other standard banner sizes include:
Size(pixels).Type
468 x 60.....Full banner
234 x 60.....Half banner
392 x 72.....Full banner with vertical navigation bar
120 x 240....Vertical banner
125 x 125....Square button
120 x 90.....Button #1
120 x 60.....Button #2
88 x 31......Micro button
Your graphic will be hyperlinked to a target url of your choice
so you may want to spend some time planning how you will track
traffic and clicks. Some programs provide a tracking and
statistics service for you but most individual sites can't offer
that information.
When selecting where to display your banner ad the first
consideration should really be choosing a site offering
information that appeals to your target audience. A high-traffic
dating site isn't going to be much good for advertising your
maternity clothing line, for example.
Then you should look at traffic. When looking at site stats you
want to make sure you focus on page views or page impressions
rather than hits (which may count individually each graphic
viewed). Depending on your banner and market you may be
primarily concerned with unique page impressions.
Banner advertising is often sold by CPM (Cost Per Thousand
displays, the Roman numeral "M" stands for one thousand). Many
sites also offer a fixed rate price for a set period of time.
Many marketers do not concern themselves as much with
click-through rates and instead see banner ads as "branding"
tools. They create brand awareness and a brand image in the
viewer's mind. The hope is that when the viewer gets ready to
make a purchase then your "brand" pops into their mind. Branding
can also generate sales over the long-term. Branding is
difficult to measure, but can be very powerful.
If you have a big advertising budget then you might want to
consider an ad agency or media buyer. They can offer a lot of
value for the dollar because they have the experience,
knowledge, and contacts to make the most of your budget.
It is quite possible to be your own media buyer, if you are
willing and able to handle the increased workload. The biggest
difficulty is finding the right sites on which to advertise your
product or service. Then after you find a site that might be a
good match you need to negotiate the best possible deal. It is
important you be as knowledgeable as possible as it is a buyer's
market and you don't want to pay too much. Of course you also
don't want to alienate a web master whose site is a perfect
match for you.
You also have the option to buy banner space on many search
engines and directories. Often this option allows you to display
your ad only to a targeted audience which can obviously increase
your chances for a successful campaign but it can be a pricey
option.
Banner ad networks are another targeted option that might be
more affordable. Individual web site owners contract with a
single company to serve their banner ads and handle ad sales for
them. In turn, these networks divide their sites into categories
and subcategories to allow advertisers to advertise on
particular sites within the network that are the most highly
targeted. They also offer very sophisticated tracking tools that
give you lots of valuable information about who is visiting your
site, and what actions they are taking.
Some networks offer pay-per-click advertising which only charges
you when someone clicks on your banner and comes to your site.
However, this approach is subject to fraud by unscrupulous site
owners.
A pay-per-sale network, otherwise known as an affiliate program,
only charges the advertiser when a purchase is actually made.
The advertiser pays both the affiliate and the network but only
when there is a sale. Of course the competition to attract
quality affiliates is high so while this can be effective it
shouldn't be the only method of banner advertising you use.
And some final banner advertising tips:
* Keep your message brief, direct and simple.
* Attract more attention using words such as "free" and "now".
* Put "click here" somewhere on the banner.
* Create different versions of the banner.
* Animate your banner but only if it improves it.
* Keep the file size as small as possible.
About the author:
Experienced webmaster Deanna Mascle is glad to offer web development expertise and Answers About
Internet Advertising, Answers About
Internet Marketing, and Answers About
Internet Promotion to help yo
Written by: Deanna Mascle
|
 |
Home
List of Articles
Recent Articles
Six Ways to Stretch your Advertising Dollars
Every business worries about advertising costs and the effectiveness of their advertising. Inserts into newspapers are often thrown away before anyone looks at them. How can you get your advertising dollars to stretch and generate sales? Whether...
Affiliate Marketing Tools
Affiliate Marketing Tools As the range of goods and online services offered via the Internet has grown at an incredible rate over the last few years, therefore so has the competition. Web site visitors need to have a very good reason for clicking...
Banners Do Bring Traffic!
Banner advertising remains one of the most effective and cost efficient manners of gaining targeted responses to visit your web site. To benefit from this form of online advertising you must have a web page. It would also be preferable, though not...
For more traffic boosting resources,
click here.
|
