| | About The Author
Scott Covert's new book "The Banner Advertising Traffic Machine" is available at http://www.banneradmagic.com -- it teaches you how to create an entire Internet business model around banner advertising. Scott is also available for private one-on-one banner advertising consultation and complete design services. Phone 1-705-749-2225 or email scott@banneradmagic.com
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Banner Ad Apples VS Banner Ad Oranges
(C) 2000 Scott Alan Covert, Covert Consulting Inc.
You can't always meaningfully compare the click rates of two different banners. Because there are a lot of different ways banners get used. - Your banner(s) show up on amateurish websites that belong to free banner exchange programs.
In this scenario you have no control over where your banners show up, there's tons of fraud (usually), the participants have no incentive to host banners at top-of-page, you have to host banners on your own site, the traffic quality is bad and the return on investment is terrible. In my book I mention the only free banner exchange I've ever joined, and why.
- Your banner(s) shows up on a network of websites determined by an ad agency.
Sometimes the agency won't tell you which websites belong to the ad buy you are making. This once worked for me but not anymore, according to my recent tests. I won't tolerate not being told where my ads are going to appear. I need to know for sure that my ads are appearing on quality sites, at the top of the page, not at the bottom, thank you very much.
If the agency is at least going to tell you which websites you are buying space on, you can go check them out. If you like the sites and the CPM (cost per thousand impressions) rate is good, go for it. I don't pay over $10 cpm. Generally the higher the CPM the higher the click rate you can expect.
- Your banner(s) show up on a professional (high traffic)website that you hand-picked, and you dealt personally with the owner or ad manager.
This is how I usually go. It's a real struggle to get a good click rate in this scenario - but it's worth it. Why? Because it's where your best prospects are!
Think about it - would you want your banner for pet products to show up on amateurish pet-related websites that belong to a "Pets Web Ring"? Wouldn't it be better for your ad to be on a professional, high-traffic pets-related website? It's like advertising in a big city newspaper instead of a high school newsletter.
- You put your OWN banner(s) on your OWN web site.
It doesn't make a lot of sense the way I see it, but some people do this. You can't analyze the traffic-building power of a banner when the person who clicks is ALREADY on your website! If you have an almost empty web page, and the only real thing a visitor could possibly do is to click on the banner, of course the click rate will be high.
- Your banners are being made for an affiliate program.
More and more, my personal banner design clients are having banners made for their affiliates to pick and choose from.
What affiliates should be doing is using salesletters, web pages, advertorial content, and email endorsements to their own email lists, to promote what they're selling. But many insist on the laziest route possible, which is to plaster their own website with affiliate banners.
How important the click rate is in this scenario, is debatable. After all the people that DON'T click the banners on your own web site, are still staying on your site (where they might buy something else instead)! It's the reverse to a "normal" banner ad campaign - you're trying to get people to click off your site instead of clicking on to it. And, you're putting the banners on your own site instead of paying to have them show up somewhere else. For more discussion of the different ways banner ads get used, get "The Banner Advertising Traffic Machine" (60 pages, $47) at http://www.banneradmagic.com
Related Links - Banner Advertising Traffic Magic
How to make banner ads, how to design them for a high click-through rate ("CTR"), what to make them link to (hint: NOT your home page!), and where to buy your advertising. |
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