4 Tips To Get The Most Out Of Your Banner Ads…

Hopefully, you’re familiar with the different types of advertising revenue models. Equally important though, is knowing when, how and where best to use each type to best capitalize on their strengths, and overcome their weaknesses.

You have a finite number of ad spaces on your site. I don’t know what that number is – it’s whatever you’ve decided. Let’s say you’ve decided on 4 ads displayed at any given time in gutter of your site. Is the CPA ad in question so appealing to your target audience, and so appealing an offer, that the user is likely to click – and convert – that it deserves to be shown in one of those prime spaces instead of a CPM ad that will earn you money just for being shown, or a CPC ad simply for being clicked?

When a user clicks an ad on your site – they may be gone for good. You never know. Is the payoff from the click, or the possible payoff of the completed action worth that user leaving your content?

Here are a few good rules of thumb to follow.

1. Create advertising zones on your site.

Not every type of advertising model is best for every area of your site. We know that our revenue models boil down into three successively increasing levels of visitor engagement. Ad seen, ad seen + clicked, ad seen + clicked + some other type of completed action.

CPM and CPC ads should best leverage overall site traffic, and/or overall visitor interest. These are the ads you should be showing in the gutter of your site, so that regardless of what content a user might be viewing, you’re racking up impressions on your CPM ads, and are most likely to get a click on your CPC ads.

Further, the ads you show site-wide should be general content that matches the general audience of your site. My site targets lots of different demographics – the developer, the designer, the blogger, etc. As such, the ads I show in a site-wide zone should be for content that might interest everybody.

If you have a big bucket of possible ads to show, and the ability to set targeted weighting (likelihood of the ad being shown depending on the type of content being viewed), DO IT.

Say you’re a mommyblogger who reviews both food and wine and video games. OK…bit of a broad potential audience there. If you’ve got the ability, you should set your zones so that you’re showing your food and wine ads when food and wine content is being viewed, and game ads when game content is being viewed. In a CPC model this will get you the best bang for your buck, as you’re displaying a given ad to the targeted audience most likely to click it.

In stark contrast to CPM and CPC, you wouldn’t want to waste that valuable “site-wide” slot on the very risky CPA model. If a user is on my site to read a specific article about how to install Android on their Mac via Parallels, they may not be interested in knowing the 10 flagrant grammar mistakes that make you look stupid.

Follow?

I may have a very well paying agreement with Parallels that awards me a set fee for the completed sale of a copy of Parallels. However, as CPA ads are typically very narrowly targeted, unless my site is equally narrowly targeted, I don’t want to serve up that maybe ad in lieu of a sure thing ad in areas I already know aren’t going to get a click, much less a conversion.

These CPA ads are best served up within the actual content-specific post itself, and better still in a way that makes it seem less like an ad and more like part of the story.

“Here’s some info about Parallels, and don’t you like Parallels, and isn’t Parallels cool?” Oh, and since we’re on the subject – here’s where you can go get it.”

The successful publisher will get the best ROI using a targeted focus with regard to ad zones.

In the example below, I’ve got three zones set up here.

• CPC Zone – We’re in a technical area/category – so I may show an ad that a more technical person might click on, without being too focused. In a less technical area  – I might show a less technically oriented ad.
• CPM Zone – These ads show up everywhere on my site, and are very general ads. I’m not concerned about clicks or conversions, as I get paid just for showing it. Currently, I treat CPM and CPC about the same, with a slight weight to content-targeted CPC.
• CPA Zone – As this ad only gives me a return if a conversion goes through for a very specific customer, I’m showing this ad only within the content associated with that specific audience.

2. Open CPA links in a new window.

Opening up links in a new tab or window (<a href… target=”_blank”>) is a double-edged sword. On the one hand, your site is still open in the background. You have temporarily diverted the user’s attention, but you’ve still got them to some extent. On the other hand, it can be annoying from a user’s perspective.

Some site owners opt to open all external links in a new window – ads or otherwise. Some never do it. It’s a balancing act, and you as the publisher must decide where you want to stand.

At a minimum, you should open up CPA links in a new window. With a CPA model, you as the publisher are taking all the risks. You get paid nothing for using up your marketing real estate, nor do you even get anything for the click. Don’t forfeit a user on your site for a maybe.

3. Diversify.

There are many different advertising networks. Linkshare, Commission Junction, Google AdWords, etc, etc. Do your research and choose ads from different networks and in differing revenue models. Just as you should split up your investments between the long term and guaranteed albeit low-paying investments, and shorter-term, riskier but higher payoff ones – you should do the same with your online advertising.

Take advantage of users who completely ignore your ads, users click on some, and users who actually convert on a few – by displaying all three types.

4. Measure and adjust.

If you can’t measure it, it didn’t happen. You can say, “most users on my site do…this” all day long, but if you don’t have data to support that – then you’re guessing plain and simple.

Use the analytic metrics given to you by the advertiser, as well as your own analytic tracking, to see what’s working and what’s not. Enhance what works, and ditch what doesn’t.

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For some site owners, advertisements are a supplementary add-on simply to help cover the costs of operating the site. For some – they’re the whole focus, and the content is simply to drive users to the ads.

There are plenty of publishers out there making six-figure salaries from ad revenue alone. Am I one of them? Uh…no. I doubt I ever will be, and don’t really intend to try.

No matter which stance you take, it is imperative to your overall advertising approach that you understand the differences between the various models, and use them in a way that suits you best.

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