PLACING THE BANNER AD

Average Industry fees: commission
Advertising agency: 15%
Web broker 15%
Web site owner who displays your banner ad. 70%
SECURING AD SPACE
Using A Web Broker (Placement Agency)

A broker [eg: Bertini Murray & co., DoubleClick, Fairfax, Nine MSN, Yahoo….] may represent several hundred Web sites, large and small, each of which may be right for a particular client.
See Media Placing A table with brokers / websites / file sizes etc.

A good Web broker will often categorize his Web sites demographically, and will have software in place to accurately measure traffic. In return, they usually ask for an exclusive contract with a Web site where the advertising is to be placed. However it is a good idea to place ads with several Web Brokers on diverse sites to find the most suitabel 'mix' of web sites.

ASK THE PLACEMENT AGENCIES THESE QUESTIONS

  1. Which pages on the Website will run my ad? (see targeting)
  2. NB: Do the individual sites that you are planning to advertise on have a broswer sniffer. Can they tell if the user is surfing the net through a Netscape or Internet Explorer browser and what version is it?
  3. NB:Do the individual sites have ad server technology that can tell the grade of machine that the user has. Can the ad server push an animated gif to those people who cannot view java, and java banner ads to those users who can view them.
  4. NB:Do the individual sites have ad server technology that will push a specific ad out to users accessing the internet from specific countries. For example if I want an Australian to view a different ad from Americans - can the ad server push the correct ad to the correct geographical audience?
  5. Where on the Web pages will my ad appear?
  6. How many impressions do you guarantee?
  7. How often do you deliver statistics?
  8. What statistics do you generate?
  9. What banner size (in pixel dimensions and in file size) do you allow?
  10. What advanced technologies can I use in my ad?
  11. Do you support HTML forms?
  12. Do you have a browser sniffer?

  HINTS FOR PLACING THE AD

Suitability NOT Frequency
Reaching 1000 pre-qualified people with your advertising message is *much* more valuable to you than reaching 10,000 people who are unlikely to be interested at all.
1) Do they reach my target market?
2) What is the cost to reach 1000 targeted customers?

Target sites most suited to your audience. If it is a sports site - ask the web Brokers to find a group of sports sites or directories on which they can advertise for you.

"When people get to Yahoo I don't think they're ready to make their jumps yet. It's too early. You have to get to those outer islands."
Roy Schwedelson, CEO of WebConnect.

Click through rates for advertising on the home pages of the major search engines result in about a 1-2 % click through rate. However more closely targeted sites might bring click rates of 8%- 13%

1. Less Is More.
Clickthrough rates drop off after the fourth impression. In other words, the number of times users click on your ad tapers off after they've seen your ad more than four times. Therefore, it is essential to target your ads carefully.

2. News groups / Mailing Lists / Directories
Eg: Deja news: subscribe to a couple of relevant mailing lists, learn what sites people are talking about.
Opt-in direct email lists: eg PostMaster direct have many types of lists, which makes targeting easy. Their cost per thousand is $150 - $200 per thousand emails sent.

3. Ezines
Advertise on electronic newsletters, or "ezines". Ezines, which reach very specific target markets of people who have already expressed an interest in a subject area.
A resource of ezines is found at www.factsheet5.com/ezines.html

4. Placement on the page.
Users are more likely to look at banners that appear at the top of the page. BUT people are getting used to just mentally skipping the top inch of a Web page. The result is less click through.

Therefore new advice is to place the banner ad:
* Ads next to the right scroll bar (in the lower right-hand corner of the first screen*) generated a 228% higher click-through rate than ads at the top of the page.
* Ads placed 1/3 down page, as opposed to the top, generated 77% higher click-through rates.
* Results from placing two ads on a page (at top and bottom) were inconclusive.
Background information on this study

*at the top and bottom of page when possible.
*not at the bottom or below the "fold" don't do as well.
*create two banners and bracket important content between them.
*create big banners, the more pixels, the more likely surfers are to click through.

OR
use a small separate browser window
 Notable alternatives for banner ad placement include positioning banner ads in a. Of course the downside to this approach is that viewers can easily close the window before having seen the ad.

creatively place an ad within the content
Another approach is to creatively place an ad within the content. For example, if the site contains a graphics interface or navigational unit, you can integrate the ads into its design.

place close to Web items that surfers are used to interacting with
Also, Webmasters are finding that banner ads get more click through when banner ads are placed with such as a Web scroll bar or link to download free software.

alternate the size
Also, note that while the standard 468 pixel wide by 60 pixel high banner ad still dominates, other sizes and shapes are increasing in popularity. Half-sized banners, 234 by 60, are becoming more popular because they are less intrusive. 100 pixel square banners are showing up in pre-sized browser window interfaces (such as in Disney's DisneyBlast)

 
Can I afford banner advertising with Web Brokers?
While there is a good bit of variance in rates the typical Web ad to cost you about 8 to 11 cents per page impression, which translates to a CPM (cost per thousand) of AD $80 to $100. The more targeted the visitors to the Web site, the higher the rate charged.

Many Web brokers and Web sites, however, set minimum charges.

WebConnect: requires a monthly expenditure of at least $750 (which can be spread over several Web sites)
Yahoo: charges $1,000 per month for when you "purchase" a "word" on their search engine.
Eg: banner ad for your online casino pops up anytime someone searches for the word "casino" or "gambling."
For the $1,000 per word per month, Yahoo will guarantee you 10,000 impressions (a CPM of $100, or 10 cents per impression).
Lycos: charges $500 minimum per month per "word," at 5 cents per impression over 10,000 impressions (CPM of $50).
Geocities: banner ads can be delivered untargeted for $25 CPM, or to specific targeted areas for $40 CPM. However, they require a minimum purchase of $10,000.

LINKS

Go to Media Placing A table with brokers / websites / file sizes etc.

See Double Click Agreements, Specs, tracking, Submitting.......

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