Has your online lead system been slapped in the face by Google PPC? Banner Advertising May Be Your Answer
Marketers of all kinds, from affiliates to network marketers, direct sales representatives, and anyone with an offer that Google doesn’t like, have been hit hard.
Banner Advertising is a great, quick, and easy way to supplement traffic to your online lead system while reworking your PPC strategy.
Banner advertising is much easier than PPC, but there are still a few important things to know before you start. By following these simple steps, you should be able to breathe some life back into your online lead system.
There are two ways that website owners commonly use to charge you for your banner ad, CPM and CPC. CPM is based on the number of impressions (or page loads) your Banner gets and is based on cost per million. Milli is Latin for thousand. You are looking for sites that have a CPM of $1 – $4 with a maximum of $5.
CPC stands for cost per click and chances are, unless you deal directly with Google (which, if it slaps you, you won’t right now), you won’t find site owners offering CPC. With CPC you can be a bit more forgiving with some of the tips below.
First, you want to find a few websites that rank well in organic search results for keywords related to the business you’re promoting with your online lead system. Pay no attention to PPC ads when looking for sites to place your banners.
You will then need to contact the site owner to obtain your rate sheets. Deal; don’t pay the price you get first on the rate sheet. If you negotiate well, you can get up to 40% discount on the rate. Keep in mind that you will be dealing with site owners for these NOT big advertising or search companies, so you have some wiggle room here, as these site owners need your business more than a big company.
So don’t be fooled by your banner placement on the main page or landing page, find the right sub-pages on the site that are relevant to your keywords, Banner and the offer on the site they will be sent to. This is especially important if you’re paying based on CPM (which I’ll explain in a minute).
Specify the exact page(s) you want your Banner to appear on and make sure you read the page and make sure you like the orientation. If your ad is on a page targeting cat food and you sell dog food, this will not be a very effective campaign.
Also keep in mind that text-heavy pages are usually not the best placement.
When it comes to placing your Banner on the actual page, this is crucial, especially when you pay per CPM. With CPC this is not so important.
Make sure your banner is at the top of the page or, in other words, placed on the website so that it is visible regardless of whether the user scrolls down the page or not. With CPM, this is crucial because if your Banner is below the page and the page it is loaded on, you are charged for an impression whether or not the user scrolls past the page.
If you do this, many of your prints will never be seen.
Be sure to look at the sites Alexa rating, how many regions a site covers (the more they cover, the more bargaining you should be able to do), the format of accepted banners, whether they allow text and graphics or text only, and be sure to place your ads. in the hot zone (the areas of the pages that people look at the most).
Finally, track your results by connecting to the feedback loop of your online prospecting system. You’ll want to know how many clicks your banner is getting, how many leads you’re getting from those clicks, and then how many of those leads actually become customers for you.
If you’re getting poor results on a site, you don’t want to keep throwing money their way. Find the sites that are working well for you and increase your budget there. Also, never commit to a long-term contract with a site until you’ve established that it’s worth your money. Be very careful with your budget and remember that it is the site owner’s job to get as much money as possible from you and it is their job to be a smart business person and negotiate and protect your budget.