Still feeling adventurous and want to advertise with banners? Here’s an overview of the process...
1) Design a banner ad that will catch the eye of your target customer.
2) Negotiate a deal with the Web site.
3) Place a banner on a Web site that your target is likely to visit.
4) Banner compels visitor to click-through to your site.
5) Receive and measure click-throughs (and orders)
6) Evaluate the campaign.
7) Improve the results.
A small but potent tip to make your banner campaign more efficient...geo-target!
Put yourself in this scenario... You sell pre-owned cars in San Francisco. Your
business is booming and your Web site is up and running. A modest-size banner
campaign has begun.
How valuable is your banner ad to a surfer from Australia? That’s a totally wasted
impression. Your business focuses on people in the greater San Fran area so you
only want to advertise to them.
And now you can! Geo-target your ads through I.P. addresses. Let me explain...
Each country (and its regions) have an assigned series of I.P. addresses which
makes it easy to track visitors’ origins. All you have to do is set up your site so that
only surfers from San Francisco see your banner ads! (More later.)
OK, reach for the biggest gains that you can with your banner campaign. Follow this advice...
1) Rivet eyeballs to your design.
i) Depart from the typical -- be high impact, visually striking, and consistent with
your marketing theme.
ii) Use subtle animation (especially horizontal movement) to get attention -however, it must be a part of the ad, not a gimmick.
iii) Keep loading time to a minimum -- keep the banner size as small as possible
(max. = 10K, under 7K best). If the page itself is huge and painfully slow, visitors
will give up before they even see your banner -- but you’re still charged for the
impression!
iv) Reduce competition. Are you the only ad on the page, and where will it be
placed?
2) Negotiate a deal. Negotiate, negotiate, negotiate.
What more can I say? Show some serious, long-term intentions. Negotiate hard
on price. You’ll get a break.
And if you can’t cut much of a deal price-wise, negotiate on placement location.
Maybe you can get your banner on the top and bottom of the page for the same
price! Be in the spotlight!
Web sites can charge in one of three ways...
i) per-impression -- banner pops up, you pay
ii) per click-through -- viewer clicks on banner, you pay
iii) per-sale -- viewer buys, you pay.
Per impression means you are paying for a banner’s exposure, whether your
prospect actually looks at it or not. Ask about what is being done to ensure that a
banner is seen before a reader scrolls or clicks away.
Banner vendors dislike the last two models (from above). If there are no
click-throughs or sales, they don’t receive income. Vendors feel that they are being
penalized if a banner (which they did not create) is ineffective.
A pay-per-click-through fee structure is probably the fairest compromise. It
guarantees that a prospect has seen the ad, but no sale is required. If you can
negotiate a click-through deal, design your banners to “qualify” your prospect (i.e.,
“weed out” non-targets).
Search Engines sell banners according to keywords.
For example, PennyGold buys the keyword -- “pennystocks” -- from a SE. From
now on, when a searcher uses that keyword at that Search Engine, the PG banner
pops up. Direct target! Even though this strategy costs more than a rotation of
banners, it’s worth it.
Check it out yourself. Go to one of the Search Engines. Punch in “pennystocks”
and hit “SEARCH.” What banner do you see? Is it related, semi-related or
unrelated to “pennystocks”? Hit “Refresh” or “Reload,” or “Next 10.” Check the
banner again... related or unrelated?
If the majority of banners are related to the topic, your competitors are already
there, and your bargaining position with the SEs is weak. But don’t waste this
golden opportunity. Study the banners carefully. What do they do right? Do it
better!
If the banners are totally unrelated, no one is buying this word. You should be
able to negotiate a better rate... maybe even get a jump on the competition.
Of course, if you can get your site listed at the top of a search results page by
mastering the SE’s algorithm, you can get the same results for free. And a listing
on a search results page is far more valuable than a banner ad on that same
page!
3) Place a banner ad on a site visited by your target market.
You can either...
i) do it yourself -- if you know what you’re doing, you can negotiate a better rate
ii) purchase through your ad agency (for those within a budget).
However you do it, your core target market must make up most of the audience for this site.
Get the bull’s eye!
4) Be creative. Get the click-through.
All the rules of good sales writing apply, but you’ve got a problem. You have
to cram it all...... into a teeny little container!
Here’s how to maximize your click-through rate...
• Your banner must set the tone. Design it to appeal to the viewer.
• Use a single, benefits-oriented headline. There’s not much space in a banner ad.
Your headline will usually double as your offer -- make it audience-appropriate and
compelling.
• Offer something for free -- you can even put a free subscription form on the
banner. When they click, they subscribe and proceed to the site!
• Hit with your biggest USP gun.
• Teasers and intrigue are effective -- pull the viewer to your site.
• Ask a provocative, yet selling, question. Or use an incomplete thought -- a phrase
that begs to be...
• Use a graphic that will “stand out,” and fits the theme.
• Sex sells -- maybe I’ll put up a banner with a gorgeous babe and ask..
“Want to know how to make your site sell...
... without putting me on a banner?”
• Create urgency (“Last Day!” or “Limited Time Offer”).
• Your call to action must be clear and strong --get the click!...
• Tell them -- “Click Here!”
• Button-style graphic makes it clear what to do -- click!
• Blue border around the ad implies “clickability.”
• Add a clickable text link just below the banner.
• The overall tone and message of the ad must be appropriate for the audience.
• Interactive banners can be very effective.
• Use compelling “click me” ALT text for those surfers who turn “graphics off.”
OK, ready? Think you’ve got a banner that compels a click-through? Take the
acid test...
Be the customer... Would you click on your banner? Be honest -- think of the thousands of banners that you don’t click! What would make you click on yours?
5) Receive and measure click-throughs (and orders)
Ask your banner vendor to provide you with a real-time stats page -- one that
reveals the following, for each banner...
• the number of impressions -- i.e., the number of times they showed that banner
• the number of click-throughs -- i.e., the number of times visitors clicked on it
• the calculated click-through rate.
You must be able to verify these numbers. Here’s the best way...
For each banner ad at each banner vendor, create a unique blank Web page.
When a visitor sees your ad and clicks through, she goes to that unique page
When she hits that page, a CGI script does the following...
i) It keeps track of the number of times this page has been visited (daily, weekly,
monthly and yearly totals). Since that page is unique for a certain banner placed
with a certain vendor, you can now keep score of your click-throughs.
ii) It redirects your visitor to a preset page (usually the Opening Page) from your
Web site. Your customer never sees the blank receiving page.
iii) It sets a cookie for each visitor. Since that visitor now has a cookie, you can
track her response to your site (ex., purchase, subscription, etc.), both on the
current visit and on future visits. Yes, you can measure actual sales, even if the
sale occurs a week later!
6) Calculate whether it’s worth it or not. You know how much the banners cost
you. And you know what they generated. Was the cost worth it?
Are you making an acceptable profit? Acceptable profit may be “break-even” if
you attribute extra value to the lifetime value of a new customer. Or it may even be
a loss if you are simply trying to generate subscriptions for a newsletter, or build
brand awareness.
The key point is... you must have an iron-clad way to measure the return
generated by your advertising dollar.
7) Improve the results -- Be systematic in your testing/tracking. Use the banner
vendor’s stat page. Keep effective ads (high click-through), and drop the others.
Banners burn out -- ask the vendor how long a banner remains effective. Watch for
signs of burnout and be ready to rotate a new and even better banner into the mix.
Look ahead -- if you keep the good banners, and replace the bad with better ones,
could your banner program become profitable long-term?
To learn more about banners, visit...
Banner Tips
http://www.bannertips.com/
and...
ClickZ has taken down its superb banner critiquing site, Microscope. Luckily, the
articles remain in the archives for your perusal!
Bottom Line?...
Forget about banners. They’re expensive (especially compared to the SEs!). The
click-through rate is low. People come in with an attitude...
...“OK, ya got me here --waddayagot?”
If you come across an extremely targeted site that sells banners, contract for a one-month trial run. They’ll say they don’t sell for just a month, but insist...
“Hey, I’m serious here. But why should I lock myself in for six months if the first month proves that this is not a viable marketing tool for my business? On the other hand, if it’s successful, you’ll have a happy, long-term customer. How about it?”
These days, they’ll probably jump at a paying customer.
Experiment with different banners. Rotate at least 3 or 4 during the month.
As you measure the returns of your campaign, you’ll know whether or not banners will be part of your long-term strategy.
But unless you have money to burn, focus on free traffic-building methods, and Pay-Per-Click Search Engines first.
Banner Exchange via Banner Networks
You can exchange links, and you can buy banners, so it stands to reason that you
can exchange banners. Companies which facilitate this exchange are evolving
into full-blown “banner networks.”
For more info...
LinkExchange
http://www.bcentral.com/services/bn/default.asp
Safe-Audit
http://www.safe-audit.com/
SmartAge.com
http://www.smartage.com/
A major downside to banner exchange? Customers click a banner on your site
and leave it before they get to your Order Page. I prefer to keep the customers I
have worked so hard to attract.
You usually have to include a “LinkExchange” notification under the banner, which
makes you look rather “small fry.” This hurts your credibility -- you don’t see
Microsoft using link exchanges.
Plus, you’ll often need to display two banners on your site, in order to receive credit
for one banner exposure elsewhere on the network.
If your main purpose for joining an exchange is to build site traffic, you can fully
expect to see the dawn of a new ice age before it happens.
Bottom line?
Not a viable alternative for serious businesses with major ambitions.
Banner Advertising Networks are companies that manage your banner campaign
on the Web. These services often represent hundreds of merchants, and use this
“group” force to bargain better deals with the banner vendors...
24/7 Media
http://www.247media.com/
engage
http://www.engage.com/
Bpath
http://www.bpath.com/
ValueClick
http://www.valueclick.com/
ValueClick’s service is slightly more expensive because it works on a per
click-through basis.
