312 101 Ways To Promote Your Web Site

CPM
Cost per thousand, or CPM, is a standard advertising term. CPM is
often used to calculate the cost of banner advertising if a site sells advertising
based on impressions. If the CPM of banner advertising on the
site was US$40 and the number of impressions the ad had was 2,000,
then the advertiser would have to pay US$80 for displaying the ad.
Keywords
You can purchase keyword banner advertising on search engines (see
Chapter 8) sites that have sophisticated banner advertising programs,
or sites whose banner advertising real estate is maintained by online
advertising agencies that have sophisticated banner advertising programs.
Your banner ad appears when someone does a search on the keyword
that you purchased. This is good for zooming in on your target market.
Geotargeting
Purchasing geographically targeted banner advertising is one of the
latest trends in Internet marketing. This is done by purchasing banner
advertising for a range of IP addresses. Every device that connects to
the Internet has its own unique IP address. These are assigned centrally
by a designated authority for each country. We are now seeing
search engines sell IP addresses to help businesses pinpoint their target
geographic group. For example, John Doe is building a new home in
Utah and is searching for a company selling lumber in his area. Dooley
Building Supplies, a lumber company in Utah, happens to be marketing
over the Internet, and as part of Dooley’s banner advertising campaign
they have purchased banner ads by keyword and by IP address.
Simply stated, they have said that they only want their banner ad to
appear when the keyword lumber is searched on by individuals whose
IP address is within a certain range (the range being those existing in
Utah). When John Doe does his search on the word lumber, the Dooley
Building Supplies banner ad is displayed at the top of the page holding
the search results. Someone in Michigan searching for lumber would
see a different banner ad.
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Jump on the Banner Wagon
Banner advertising is the most common and most recognized form of
online advertising. Banner ads are available in various sizes. (See Figure
20.2 for some of the more popular banner ad sizes.)
Banners usually have an enticing message or call to action that coaxes
the viewer to click on it. “What is on the other side?” you ask. The
advertiser’s Web site, of course. Banner ads can also be static, just displaying
the advertiser’s logo and slogan, or can be animated with graphics
and movement.
If you use an advertising or PR company to develop your offline
ads, quite often they provide you with a library of banner ads that you
can use for your online advertising campaign. If you choose not to use
an advertising or PR company, you can outsource the creation of a banner
ad to another company or create your own.
The banner ad is designed to have a direct impact on the number of
click-throughs it achieves. There are a number of resources on-line to
assist you in developing dynamic banner ads. The Banner Generator at
Figure 20.2. There are many different marketing resource Web sites available
on-line that can provide you with the popularity of different sizes and types of
banner ads.
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http://www.coder.com/creations/banner allows you to create banners online
at no charge. The Media Builder at http://www.3dtextmaker.com
allows you to develop animated banner ads directly from its site. Other
resources to assist you in designing and building banner ads are identified
in the Internet Resources section at the end of this chapter.
As noted previously, there are a wide variety of banner sizes available.
You should consult with the owners of the Web sites on which you
want to advertise before creating your banner ad or having one created
professionally for you.
The objective of your banner ad is to have someone click on it. Do
not try to include all of your information in your ad. A banner that is
too small and cluttered is difficult to read and is not visually appealing.
Many banners simply include a logo and a tag line enticing the user to
click on it. Free offers or contest giveaways are also quite effective for
click-throughs because they tend to appeal to the user’s curiosity.
Exploring Your Banner Ad Options
Static banners are what the name suggests. They remain static on the
same Web page until they are removed. Your banner ad will be visible
on that particular page until your reader moves to another page.
Animated banners are banners that move on a Web site. Animated
banners are usually in GIF format and contain a group
of images in one file that are presented in a specific order
(see Figures 20.3a through 20.3c). When using animated
banner ads, you can choose to loop the file so
that the banner continues to move between the images
in the files, or you have the option to make it stop after
a complete cycle.
Rotating banners are banner ads that rotate among different Web
pages on the same site. Some rotating banners rotate every 15 or 30
seconds, so a visitor might see several ads while remaining on the page.
Other rotating banner ads rotate every time there is a new visitor to the
page. Rotating banners are commonly used in high-traffic Web sites.
Scrolling banners are similar to modern billboards. Here the visitor
sees a number of billboard ads, scrolled to show a different advertisement
every 10 to 30 seconds.
Gif
Graphics Interchange
Format.
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Banner Ad Tips
Follow these tips to ensure that your banner ad achieves your marketing
objectives:
• Make sure that your banner ad is quick to load. If the Web page
loads in its entirety before the banner, then the viewer might
click away before ever seeing it. Ideally, you should have a very
fast banner ad on a relatively slow loading site. This way your
viewers have nothing to do but read your banner ad while they
are waiting for the site to load. You should always try to keep
your banner ad size under 5K.
Figure 20.3a. This is the first stage in an animated banner ad. It catches
visitors’ attention and makes them think the banner is doing a search on popular
keywords related to skiing.
Figure 20.3b. This is the second stage in the animated banner ad. It acts as
though the banner is continuing the search.
Figure 20.3c. This is the final stage in the animated banner ad series. It looks
as though the search was completed. Now they have the viewer’s complete
attention.
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• To see how big files are when using any version of Internet Explorer,
you can follow these steps:
– Right-click on the banner ad.
– Select Properties.
– In the Properties window you will see a Size line which
will tell you the banner size.
• Keep it simple! If your banner contains too much text or animation,
or too many colors and fonts, viewers experience information
overload and will not be encouraged to read or click on
your banner.
• Make sure your banner ad is easily viewed. Many banners on the
Internet are nicely designed but difficult to read. Use an easy-toread
font with the right size. Be careful in your choice of color.
• Always use Alt tags for those visitors who surf the Internet with
their graphics turned off or cannot see your banner ad for whatever
reason.
• Make sure your banner ad links to the optimum page in your
site. It is not uncommon to click on an interesting banner only to
find an error message waiting for you. This is annoying to Internet
users and counterproductive for your marketing effort. Check
your banner ads on a regular basis to verify that the link remains
active and is pointing to the right page on your Web site.
• If you are using animated banner ads, limit your ads to two to
four frames.
• You should always include a call to action such as “Click here.”
It is amazing how many people do what they are told. You still
have to make your ad interesting and one that grabs their attention.
Don’t simply say “Click here”—give your audience a compelling
reason to do so.
• Test your banner ads with the different browsers, the different
versions of these browsers, and at different screen resolutions to
make sure that they look the way you want them to.
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• If you know absolutely nothing about advertising and graphic
design, do not try to create a banner on your own. Go to a
professional. If you do design your own banner, get a second
opinion and maybe a third.
Interesting Banner Ads
The following are more technologically advanced forms of banner advertising.
They are interesting to viewers because they have attributes
that are unique or unusual in some way. These attributes might be more
apt to grab viewers’ attention and entice them to click on the banner ad.
Expanding Banner Ads. An expanding banner ad (see Figures 20.4a
and 20.4b) is one that looks like a normal banner ad but expands
when you click on it, keeping you on the same site rather than transporting
you to another site on the Internet. Usually these say “Click
to Expand,” and the viewer then can learn more about what the
banner is promoting. Some of the more advanced expanding banner
ads have e-commerce capabilities, which allow you to actually order
products from the banner, without ever going to the Web site.
Figure 20.4a. This expanding advertisement displays the ad and then
prompts the viewer to expand the banner ad.
Figure 20.4b. When the banner expands it explains more about the product
while remaining on the site that hosts the banner ad.
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Animated Banner Ads. Animated banner ads contain a group of
images in one file that rotate in a specific order. These banner ads
are more likely to receive a higher click-through than a normal
banner ad because moving images increase chances of the viewers
reading the banner. These banners also allow you to deliver more
information than in a normal banner ad because you can show
different files, which contain different data. Limit your banner ads
to two to four frames to keep your load time fast and to make sure
your viewers read your information before they continue to surf
the Internet.
Drop-Down Menu Banner Ads Containing Embedded HTML.
Lately we are seeing an increase in banner ads containing embedded
HTML (see Figures 20.5 and 20.6). This allows viewers to select
from a drop-down menu which site they want to visit. These banners
are great because instead of making viewers click through and
then navigate through your site, as with a conventional banner, these
Figure 20.5. Trips.com advertises using banners with embedded HTML which
allows the viewer to choose various different sites from the drop-down menu.
Figure 20.6. Another embedded HTML banner allowing different selections
for the viewer to choose.
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direct your viewers to the page of interest on your site. This type of
banner ad also is great for co-op advertising programs. Several companies
selling noncompeting products or services to the same target
market can use this type of banner advertising to get more exposure
for their dollar.
Interstitial Ads. These are advertisements that appear in a separate
browser window while your visitors wait for a Web page to load.
Interstitial ads are more likely to contain large graphics, streaming
presentations, and more applets than a conventional banner ad.
However, some users have complained that interstitial ads slow access
to destination pages.
Java, Flash, and Shockwave Ads. These banner ads allow you to use
rich media in your advertisements. By using these technologies, you
can incorporate animation and sound into your banner advertisement.
Although Java banners are more technologically advanced
and offer more features, they also take longer to download and risk
not being viewed. Flash was designed to generate faster-loading Web
sites, online animation, and advertising. If you want to incorporate
rich media into your banners, you may want to go with Flash or
Shockwave because you want your visitors to see your banner ads
as quickly as possible.
Floating Ads and DHTML. These ads appear when you first view a
Web page, and they appear to “fly” or “float” over the page for
anywhere from 5 to 30 seconds. They tend to obscure your view of
the page, and they often disable mouse input until the ad is finished
loading so that you must watch it before being able to access the
page content. They have a high click-through rate and are great for
branding, although their intrusiveness has been questioned.
Unicast Ads. Although not widely seen on the Internet at the present,
their popularity is increasing. A Unicast ad is basically like a television
commercial that runs in a pop-up window. It has animation
and sound and can last from 10 to 30 seconds. Although they are
like television commercials, they go a step further in that a viewer
can then click on the ad to obtain further information. They have a
higher than average click-through rate.
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Location, Location, Location
As with all types of advertising, the location of the ad is extremely important.
There are any number of targeted sites where you can place
your banner ads. Always make sure that your banner advertising location
is consistent with your objectives.
Search Engines
Advertising with the Search Engines is covered in Chapter 8.
Content Sites
If your objectives include bringing interested people from your target
market to your site, then advertising on strategically chosen content
sites would be extremely effective. These are sites that concentrate on a
specific topic. The CPM of advertising on content sites ranges from
US$25 to US$50 depending on the traffic volume they see and the focus
of their visitors.
Banner Ad Price Factors
The price of banner ad space varies from site to site. Banner ads often are
sold based on the number of impressions or number of click-throughs. As
stated earlier, an impression is an ad view, and click-throughs are the actual
clicking on the banner ad and being sent to the advertiser’s Web site. The
price per impression should be less than the price per click-through.
When site owners charge per impression, there is usually a guarantee
that your ad will be seen by a certain number of people. The burden
is on the seller to generate traffic to its site. When the charges are per
click-through, the responsibility is on you, the advertiser, to design an
ad that encourages visitors to click on it. Sites that charge per impression
are more common than those that charge per click-through.
There are obvious advantages to the advertiser when paying per
click-through. The advertiser doesn’t have to pay a cent for the 10,000
people who saw the banner but did not pursue the link. Sites that do not
have a large volume of traffic often charge a flat rate for a specified
period of time.