Banners
In this article we will discuss the ins and outs of bannerads. Are they worth your advertising dollars or are they athing of the past?When the Web first started, banners were all the rage.Today, they’re pretty much passé. They’re no longer anovelty and unless they’re super-clever, users pretty muchignore them. Conversion rates have dropped through the floorand many advertisers have found other ways to push theirproducts.
And yet, every website still contains a whopping greatbanner ad splashed along the top or running up the side. Inpart, that’s because they’ve become more sophisticated withbetter targeting and improved graphics. But in practice,banner ads tend to be used for one of two reasons: as amethod of gaining/ giving users through an affiliateprogram; or as a way of generating revenue—ortraffic—through paid advertising.
Both these methods work to some extent, but the key isalways to make sure the economics make sense. We’ll lookclosely at the math in this chapter, but before we go on totalk about the math of banner ads—and how to tell whetheryour banner campaign is worthwhile—let’s just take a look atthe terms involved. You’re going to see these words wheneveryou join an affiliate program or take part in any other kindof online marketing scheme. You should definitely befamiliar with them.Banner Glossary
* Banner Ad — A graphic ad linked to an advertiser’s website. These usually run across the top of the page but can also run up the page (“skyscrapers”). Banners are usually limited by size.
* Banner Views —The number of times a banner is seen by users. This is usually the same as "page views," but counts the number of times the banner is actually downloaded rather than the number of times the page is downloaded. Some users click away before the banner finishes loading.* Clicks/ Click Throughs — Banners are operated by clicking the cursor over them. Not too surprisingly these responses are called “clicks” or “click throughs.”
* Click Through Rate (CTR) — The percentage of users who see the banner and click on it.
* Conversion Rate —The percentage of people who visit your site and actually give you money. The higher the better!* Cookies — Small files placed on a user’s computer. They’re used for all sorts of reasons and by all sorts of sites. Banner ads use them to make sure the user hasn’t seen the banner recently, which banner brought them to the advertiser’s site, and even which adverts they’ve seen recently.
* CPM — "Cost Per Mille." The amount you pay for every thousand times a banner is shown—the usual way of charging for banners.
* Hits — The number of times a server receives a request for a Web page or an image. Not a great way to measure interest. One page can have lots of images and get lots of hits, even if it’s only seen once. Often, people will say "hits" when they really mean "page views" or "impressions."
* Page Impressions or Page Views —The number of times a Web page has been requested by the server. Much more accurate than hits: each view is a potential customer looking at a page of your site. But not necessarily a different customer...
* Unique Users — The people who download a Web page, counted by IP address. You want to bring lots of users to your site so that you can create a broad customer base. The same user clicking on a banner a dozen times could cost you money without increasing your sales. Most reputable sites will check the IP address of the person clicking on a link and only count it once in a 24-hour period. If a site doesn’t do this, don’t advertise with them.
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Banner Economics
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Business online, like business offline, always boils down tomath: the difference between cost and revenue. If yourbanner campaign is costing more than it’s earning, you won’tbe in business for very long. To figure out how yourcampaign is doing, you’re going to need to know your CostPer Mille, your Click Through Rate and your Conversion Rate.These are your basic tools. If you don’t know them, findout!
Let’s say your CPM is $20, your CTR is 1%, and yourConversion Rate is 4%. (So you’re paying $20 every 1,000times your banner is shown, it brings you 10 new users, andyou make one sale for every 25 users the ad brings). Thequestion you need to ask yourself is how much are youwasting on the 24 users who don’t buy.
Cost per visitor = $20 / 10 = $2 So each visitor costs you$2, but you need 25 visitors to make one sale, so...
Cost per sale = $2 * 25 = $50 ...if your product is worthless than $50, you’re making a loss.
That’s pretty simple, and as you can see, there’s not a lotof room to maneuver here. Margins are tight on banneradvertising and that applies to both the site selling theadvertising space and the webmaster buying it.
Of course, hard cash isn’t the only way to measure thesuccess of a banner ad, and one reason they’re still popularis that they’re a pretty effective branding tool. After all,advertisers spend millions on billboards without expectingmotorists to drive straight through them and make apurchase! On the Web, those advertisers can even bereasonably sure that the people who see their ads will beinterested in them. But branding costs money—lots of it—withno guarantee of results. It’s usually best left to the bigboys.
The banner ads on my sites usually send users to myaffiliate partners, and the banner ads I place on otherpeople’s sites usually come from my affiliate programs. Theydon’t cost me anything and as long I’m making the sales topay my affiliate partners, everybody’s happy.
If you do decide to purchase banner advertisements though,and if you have a very specific market in mind, make surethey are strategically placed—on sites where the trafficwill most definitely be interested in your product orservice. Find a site that suits exactly your specificproduct and you’re going to be appealing directly to yourtarget market.
That’s it for this week. As you can see, banner ads are notthe guaranteed money making tools that they once were butthey can still be used effectively if targeted properly. Isbanner advertising for you? Only you can determine that.
Warmly,
George Whitecraft
posted by George @ 6:25 PM
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