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Are Banner Ads Still An Effective Form Of Internet Advertising? - Articles SurfingBanner ads are the pioneers of internet marketing. The first banner ad appeared on www.hotwired.com (now www.wired.com) back in October 27th, 1994 in the form of an ad for AT&T. Since that time banner ads have taken over the internet in a variety of forms. A banner ad is a graphical promotion used on websites as a form of advertisement. Banner ads can come in any size you want, however the accepted standard is 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high. Due to the widespread acceptance of this size, the same banner ad can be used on most websites without having to reconfigure the size and layout. Although banner ads can be used to advertise your phone number, address, or anything else you like, the real purpose behind banner ads is to get someone to click on it and jump to your website. There is a great deal of controversy about the effectiveness of banners. Some people swear by them, others swear at them, saying they don't work worth a darn. Although click-through rates have gone consistently downward, the same can be said of banner ad prices. The average click-through rate hovers somewhere around 0.5% range for banner ads. But, with a good banner design and placement it is still possible to achieve a good return on investment, by combining below-average ad rates and above-average response rates. Banner ads are sold in any one of three ways: cost per 1,000 impressions (CPM), pay per click (PPC), or pay per action (PPA). Buying a PPC banner is usually more expensive than the CPM basis, but can be much more effective because people actually take some kind of action by clicking though to your site. One of the drawbacks to PPC banner advertising is that one person may click on an ad more than once and you get charged for each click. However some ad providers track IP address, and only charge one click per computer per day. Most places though don't do this for the simple reason that it means less money in their pocket. The effectiveness of cost per impression banners can vary quite a bit, depending upon their placement on the webpage and you typically (not always) pay the same whether the banner is displayed prominently at the top of the page, or hidden in a bottom corner. Most CPM banner sites rotate the banners throughout the site (Run of Site ' ROS) and throughout the page. Banner ads to reach general audiences are typically priced at $1 to $10 CPM, while targeted sites may get CPM rates of $30 - $50 or more. Even though it may not seem like much, banner ads can be quite expensive. Do the math with me: If you're paying $10 CPM and the click-through rate is an industry average of 0.5%, then it costs you $10 to get 5 people to your site, or $2 per person. If 2% of the visitors to your site make a purchase, then your customer acquisition cost (CAC) is $100, ($2 / 2%). That means for every transaction you do you need to pay out $100 in advertising fees. Some websites don't even manage to convert 2% of visitors into customers, especially when they originate from a banner ad. In order for banner ads to be effective, you need to combine above average click-through rates, with below average banner prices and sell either a high-ticket product, a product with a high markup (like an info product) or have a strong back-end in place so you make money on the second, third, fourth and even twentieth sale. Pay per action banners are usually the most expensive, since you pay only for a desired action. This can be a product sale, having someone sign up for an email list or any other action you want. PPA banners can be very similar to an affiliate program and use the same type of tracking. Just like link swapping, some companies have banner swapping programs. Most banner swapping programs are free and some might require you to pay a monthly administration fee so they can cover their costs. Many of the free companies make money by the in-proportionate ratio of banners you display on your site, vs. your banners being displayed on other sites. Let's say you need to place a certain banner on your site for a total 10,000 impressions, but you only get 8,000 impressions of your banner on someone else's site in return. This is how these sites fund themselves. They sell the extra 2,000 impressions you lose, for a profit. Some banner exchanges are pure and simple; I'll put your banner on my site, if you put mine on yours. There's absolutely nothing wrong with this if both sites are of a similar interest and get comparatively the same amount of traffic. Some sites will track your stats and some will allow you to upload multiple banners so they can be rotated throughout the sites where are placed. This way you can determine what works best if you're paying per impression. It's also always a good idea to use your own ad tracker so you can follow the click-throughs to your site and see how many actually lead to a sale. Some banner exchange companies will actually design the banner for you as part of their program. Although I suggest you design, (or have designed) your own banners. If you are going to let the banner exchange company design it for you, make sure it is on target. Some of these companies use software that automatically creates your banner untouched by human hands and unseen by human eyes, until it gets to yours. As with any type of advertising, the design, wording and call to action of your banner is quite important. Since the purpose of a banner is to stop, interrupt really, the surfer's train of thought, clicking on a banner is an impulse decision. People need a reason to make an impulse decision so you need to give them one. The following are some tips to help generate the highest click-through rate possible: All in all, banner advertising can be a key part of your online marketing campaign. Depending on all of the key factors mentioned above, it may or may not be a financially feasible part of your marketing campaign, if it can make you a profit. If it can't, don't sweat it, there's tons of other ways to cost effectively market your business online.
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