Banners Aren’t Dead

Hello,

Marlon here.

In the past, when tracking was scarce, few people paid attention
to the returns they made on their banner ads. Since they had
almost no way to separate out the returns they made from banner
ads from the returns they made from other advertising campaigns,
they often ignored the difference, rather than trying to figure it
out.

Today, things are quite different. Tracking returns on different
advertising methods is trivial. It usually amounts to copying-and-
pasting a small piece of code; and then monitoring traffic and
sales statistics that that code tracks over time.

Shortly after web masters smartened up and started using tracking
systems, many found that their banner ads – which they were paying
for by the impression – were underperforming. Thus, there was a
great departure from using banner ads. While almost every
Internet-based business used to use banner ads, many left in
search of different forms of advertising.

‘Pay for performance’ and ‘pay per click’ advertising media–such
as Google Adwords–sprung up, allowing advertisers to pay only for
the clicks they got–not for the impressions. Most advertisers saw
this attractive and made the switch. As a result, most Internet
marketers don’t use banner ads and will generally tell you that
they’ve had their day, but are no longer a good way to spend
advertising dollars.

For a short period of time, that was true. But it’s no longer the
case. Today, you can purchase banner ads that are ‘pay for
performance’ or ‘pay per click’–just like Adwords. This means
that you only have to pay when someone actually clicks through
your banner and goes to your site. And since the herds of
advertisers are now flocking to Adwords and other textual ads,
this is the best time to take advantage of depressed prices for
banner ads.

Now, there are a number of things you should look at whenever you
purchase banner ads. Principally, you will want to check out
things such as CPC (cost per click), CPM (cost per 1000 views),
and expected views/day (i.e. how fast the traffic will actually
come). In addition to this – and more importantly – you will want
to actually physically locate the banner network. The absolute
LAST thing you want to do is purchase banners through an ad agency
- and then have no idea where they’re actually appearing. Some ad
agencies don’t even really rotate the banners. They simply pay
people, say, 10 or 25 cents to click on them, so that the click is
registered on your statistics. Others will place banners on
low-quality sites or sites that force people to accidentally
click, adulterating the quality of clicks you receive. With that
said, you can purchase banner ads from a number of different
places, such as http://www.submitpro.us/banner-impressions.htm,

http://www.webhitsdirect.com/.

Once you verify the quality of the banner impressions you’re
receiving, you can then start to look at the other items I
mentioned. This will entail determining whether you want to pay
for impressions or for clicks. If you pay for clicks, you’ll look
for PPC banner advertising – and you’ll look at CPC stats. If you
pay for impressions, you’ll look for PPI banner advertising – and
you’ll look at CPM stats. To some extent, your choice will depend
on the advertising media available. If most PPI ad publishers look
pretty scrappy, you may want to try your luck with PPC
advertisers; and vice versa. All things equal, you’ll want to
mitigate PPC and PPI costs.

Additionally, even though this is somewhat unorthodox, ask the
publisher for references if you can get them. If you get them,
actually email the advertisers and ask about their campaigns and
their satisfaction with the ad publisher. You’re better off
putting yourself in a socially-awkward situation than purchasing
impressions or clicks that turn out to be garbage.

Once you’ve selected some advertisers, there are only two phases
left. The first phase is creating or purchasing a banner. You can
get this done for free or you can pay anywhere up to $1000. If
you’re using CPM advertising, you’ll want to get the best
converting banner you can possibly find or make. The more
clickers, the better – since you’re paying per impression, not per
click.

One place you can create free banners is at the following URL:
http://members.tripod.com/atomicarts/. All you have to do is
select a number of input options. By the time you’re finished,
you’ll have a completed banner that you can use to advertise.
Alternatively, you can use the service at the following URL, which
also does the same thing: http://www.abcbanners.com/.

If you’re not satisfied with your own artistic ability, you can
always start a contest at http://www.sitepoint.com and give some
award to the person who creates the best banner. Usually, you’ll
have to offer somewhere between $50 and $100, but the selection of
banners you’ll receive will be excellent. Additionally, you could
opt for a cheaper banner at a place such as
http://www.20dollarbanners.com/. You may also be able to find
people on http://www.namepros.com who are willing to sell you
banners for as little as $5.

When it comes down to it, your banner should be designed to either
deter curiosity or promote curiosity, depending on whether you’re
paying by the impression or by the click. If you’re paying by the
click, don’t buy or make anything fancy. Avoid the tire-kickers
because they’ll waste your money. If you’re paying by the
impression, create a banner that is fancy and tries to pull in as
many clickers as is possible.

Your success as a banner advertiser will basically be a function
of your ability to a) determine whether you should pay for
impressions or clicks; b) select the right ad publishers; and
then c) select the right banner to fight whatever it is you’re
promoting – in the medium in which you are promoting it.

Best Wishes,

Marlon Sanders