My name is Angela Wills and I’m so excited for the opportunity to share some of my own experiences here as a guest blogger. As I write this post, I currently have an ad running on 2CreateAWebsite.com.
What I’d like to do is create a case study and offer some advice based on my experience with running this ad. I’ll also share some suggestions on what to test to increase the chances of success.
Here are a couple of screenshots of what’s been happening with my ad:
This one was taken two days in:
This screenshot was taken three weeks in:
As you can see from the images above I’m getting about a 1% conversion rate. The ad has now been running for about three weeks and I’m very happy with the results to this point.
How to Choose a Website to Advertise On
I didn’t just pick 2CreateaWebsite at random for advertising. There are a number of things I considered and suggest you look at the following when trying to decide what site to place your ad on:
1) Is the target market a perfect fit for your offer?
2) Are detailed statistics available for your ad?
3) Will you be paying per click or per impression?
4) How much traffic does the site receive?
5) What type of ads perform best on the site?
As you can see, Lisa gives out some great information on the advertising that is available and who would best be served by buying an ad.
Set Your Goals
The first thing you should do is determine the main goal for your ad (e-mail subscribers/sign-ups, traffic, sales, branding, etc.)
My plan for this advertisement is to collect e-mail addresses and promote a free report on how to create a website. Visitors are sent to a sign-up page that promotes a one-time offer on creating website headers. Once the visitor signs up, the report is delivered upon confirmation.
To me it seemed like the best choice because:
1) The report is highly targeted to the website visitors.
2) I figured I’d get better conversions on a sign-up page versus trying to sell from one click.
Lisa’s Note: Excellent point here, Angela. I think the biggest mistake banner advertisers make is trying to sell directly from the banner ad.
It typically takes multiple exposures to convert a sale, so unless the ad is EXTREMELY targeted to the website, it’s usually a better idea to promote a free report and/or collect e-mail addresses to use for follow-up promotion.
That way, if the person does not buy, at least you have an e-mail address for follow-up. So you’re not just paying for traffic, you’re paying to build your list. Why not get the best bang for your buck, right?
It’s important for you to determine the purpose of the ad before you create it or you’ll be wasting your money and time.
Tracking The Results
One thing I didn’t do was create a sign-up exclusively for this advertisement so I know exactly how many came from this ad. That would be a good idea to do next time.
Even though I do not have tracking setup for this ad. Here is what I do know. Before I started the ad I was getting about 1-2 sign-ups per day. Since the ad I’m getting 3-5 per day. That adds up!
Here is a screenshot of my AWeber account where you can see the jump in signups on February 14th, the day I started the ad:
Testing Your Website Ad and Increasing Conversions
Testing is important if you want to maximize the results of your ad. One of the great advantages of running an ad on a high-traffic site is you have a large amount of traffic over a short period of time to experiment with. This is the ideal condition for running some tests and figuring out what works best.
Here are some potential items to test and experiment with:
- Wording of the landing page
- Video
- Adjust the layout
- Create a one-time offer.
- Experiment with pricing.
- Wording on the banner ad.
Note To The Frugal Marketer About Advertising
I’ll admit I’ve been a very frugal marketer for years now. I never wanted to pay for advertising as I know there as so many free methods of traffic generation.
I thought I could do it all on my own and build up my traffic, subscribers and customers using completely free methods.
Well I can tell you it’s entirely possible to build a business with free traffic but I would also recommend you consider paying for it too. Lisa’s site gets 18,000 visitors PER DAY.
That’s a massive amount more than I get and I’d be silly not to leverage such an affordable opportunity to advertise my business to so many people at once.
Lisa’s Note: I wanted to feature Angela’s guest post /case study because I think a lot of people assume banner advertising does not work or they go about it the wrong way.
Sure, may people have banner blindness, but a big part of the failure rate is people haven’t learned how to convert the ad into sales. If you’re looking to get more exposure through banner advertising make sure you do the following:
1) Contact the site owner to discuss specifics about the ad. Ask for feedback about your banner and what you are promoting before you order.
2) Inquire about conversions. This will give you an idea for the kind of traffic you can expect.
3) Instead of linking to an affiliate URL/sales page from the banner, create a short, benefit-rich landing page that offers something free related to the product/service. Collect e-mail addresses for follow-up as Angela did.
4) Make sure your banner text is benefit-rich, simple and to the point. No one is going to read 4 sentences of text crammed into a 468×60 space. The ads that perform the best on my site are simple and easy to read.
5) Know your product’s ideal audience and make sure that what you are promoting is a good fit
6) Create special tracking URLs for the banner and landing page so you know exactly how it is converting
7) Use keywords in your banner that match the theme or main idea/keywords of the site
Thanks for sharing your experiences, Angela. Hopefully it will provide insight to those who are struggling with banner ad conversions.
WOW, this is exactly what I’ve been looking for, great site and information.
Yeap it still work but yet i feel it expensive compare to using Google Adwords. Make sure that the website do have lot of your target market and it will turn high conversion rate. If not please stay away from banner advertising because it costly .
I’ll stick to good ol’ content creation and pushing forward
My target market maybe niche and if i post a banner adv in some famous website which is related. The traffic i get was low but high conversion rate.
When i would like to create brand awareness. I go with some unrelated website with high traffic. I get lot of traffic from there but with a high bounce rate.
That why i learn the license that if i looking for sales then i do only post my banner adv on related website which more near to my target market.
Hi Lisa,
I been looking for a speech recognition program that will help me be more productive online in getting out more quality and unique content. Something like a program that turns voice to text, and automatically does the periods, paragraph indentation, and creates new paragraphs without me doing it manually on the keyboard. Do yo uknow of such a program? =)
The myth about banner ads not working anymore was started back 5-7 years ago when the text link ad companies were popular and gaining a lot of traction.
The biggest clue that this was a myth then and is a myth now is that MAJOR retailers…..BIG companies……STILL use banner ads as their advertising just about everywhere online.
Obviously, this means that people are clicking on them otherwise these corporations would not sink their advertising dollars into banner ads anymore. These companies have entire marketing departments that know what works and what doesn’t work. If banners advertising did not work, then it would have ceased a long time ago.
I think text link ads work if well-placed in content, but banner ads still give visual appeal and catch the eye in a way that text links cannot. I’m so glad that more and more posts (just like this one) have been surfacing over the last few months.
Banner advertising works only if you place your ad in niche high quality site,otherwise not.
Just stopping by today to see what’s being blogged and who’s here =)
I used to only have text ads for Adsense. Google send me an email suggesting that I place image and by doing so I increased revenues substantially. Banners work.
I think there is a reason why google offers both text and banner ads. if banner ads didn’t work…google would have stopped ages ago
As long as you target the right visitors banners ads can bring in good results.
Really like this post as it shows the stats, the results, of putting out a banner ad. I often read about different tactics online, but you never now how effective they might be and if they’re worth the money.
The only thing missing now is how much it costs to adverstise on 2createawebsite.com, however, I’m sure an inquiry to Lisa would quickly solve that problem.
I never thought about banner ads before. This is something I’ll definitely consider when I do launch a product on my site.
Good point Greg and a big DUH on my part for not mentioning. LOL The costs are here.
http://www.2createawebsite.com/bannerads/index.php?loc=view_adrates&uid=100000&coupon_code=&ad_type=1
Good job on doubling back around the block Lisa. You’re an inspiration =)
http://www.DrewryNewsNetwork.com
It seems that the CTR rate very low.
this is a great post over a topic that appears to be long forgotten. i have used banner ads for my niche content websites and they have worked very well. between aweber and google analytics, i am able to validate the effectiveness of these ads. it’s a great way to expand your reach. good post! very helpful
Angela..banners ads will probably work until the end of time. Big companies look for relative sites each day that have good traffic for them to advertise on..its a win – win situation for everyone.
Love the transparency in this post Angela. Thank you 🙂
Thanks for all the info about banners!
I didn’t know much about them before this post, but now I feel confident that I will use them when I start getting enough traffic.
Collecting email addresses? Seems like a good strategy.
I like how you give a lot important details and information, you also show images that we can understand better! Lisa. Thanks for the sharing.
Banner ads are really great for improving the sales and stats of any website
Getting your name out there online is a good thing, because if you have good content and you are persistent, there is no telling how many hidden opportunities there are for you, as well as the maturity you gain along the way, in striving to succeed.
http://www.DrewryNewsNetwork.com
banner ads are still good for branding, getting you name out there to maximum number of eyes. i’m not sure about sales conversion.
Great tips and recommendation tips Angela and Lisa,
I thought that banner ads were completely dead by now (and oddly enough I do click on them!) but it definitely makes sense to use a capture page prior to actually sending them to the banner offer.
About the tracking part, I thought that nobody used paid advertising without some tracking software but I bet you have your reasons for this.
Will take your advice into consideration for my own site, thanks! 😉
~Sergio
Hey Lisa,
From time to time, I like to stop by and read your posts. I’m also a new member “well, let’s say getting gracefully seasoned” on Website Babble and I like what you’re doing online. I’m learning alot new things since discovering you and being apart of your forum. Just wanted to say “thank you” , for just being you. Keep going strong! =)
Great advice…..Many newbies don’t now what to look for when placing an ad.
You should check out The Blogging Buddies Group…we have very few blogs in this niche in the group.
Have a great weekend!
Thanks so much for your comments and feedback everyone. This is one of the few ads I’ve placed and by far the most successful. Great to hear my experience with it will be helpful to you as well 🙂
This is some refreshing information about banner ads. I’m always very cautious about buying ad space. If you’re going to do it, it’s best to use this type of strategy and definitely track your results.
I remember when I purchased ad space here a while back – I remember seeing some pretty immediate results.
Hi Angela,
Thanks for your wonderfully well written article!
A friend of mine is just about to launch his brand new business. This article will provide him with the direction he needs to get it off to a great start.
None of my websites are businesses with services or anything (yet). But I read this article completely through because it’s well-written and I may be be able to use the information some day. That’s why I stay subscribed to this site. It’s readable and interesting.
Angela, this is an excellent post. Knowing what the goal is of the ad we are running determines our success.
I recently took advantage of two free advertising offers.
1) $80 credit from Google Adwords
2) $20 Credit from Facebook
Trying banner advertising for free is a no risk way to get our feet wet.
Much like you, I too am focused on collecting email addresses. That’s where the sales happen for my products.
Since I started running the ads, my optins have increased as well.
Angela..banners ads will probably work until the end of time. Big companies look for relative sites each day that have good traffic for them to advertise on..its a win – win situation for everyone..
“Black Seo Guy “Signing Off”
Thank you for this article. I was not sure just how placing an ad on someone else’s site would work for me. I am not making a lot of money just yet, but I think I will start to look for a site that will be good for my site in my niche to advertise on.