Online Ads: Moving Past Search

This article is for any Local, Niche or Small Business that is looking for the best online advertising , or wants to learn about the online advertising market (i.e. online banner advertising ). If you are looking to start an online advertising campaign and want to post online ads on an online advertising network , then this article is meant for you. We’ll show you how to place ads online and make the most of your efforts.

Banner Ad Networks

When you see a graphic ad on a site, that ad is probably coming from an ad network that sites use to place advertising on their site. For example, you can see the two small square ads to the right of this, where the sponsors of this Blog show their ads. In my case, I use a popular and effective ad network for blogs called Performancing Ads .

Let’s say you are a local business selling "Guy Stuff". You would want to place ads on sites where the audience is men. You could start by signing up for some ad networks like the ones listed below, and look for sites that match your audience well. Think about who your BEST customers are, then troll for sites that you think would appeal to them. If you see a site on an ad network you think is a match, go to Quantcast.com and see if the demographics for the site are what you expect.

Here is one site you might want to advertise on, and look a great ad spot.

Lucky for you this ad is served my an ad network that allows local targeting, so you can serve your own ad where you see the ad for the BBQ Grill.

Creating an Ad

Prior to placing ads of course, you have to have the ads created, and perhaps a landing page created. To have the best ad possible created, read the post Crowdsourcing Web Design , and to create the best landing page for the ad, see Nail a Niche with Landing Pages.

Before you assign any ad creation work , you’ll need to have a well defined vision of what you will be advertising.  You will also want to make sure the locations you have decided to advertise in warrant the cost of developing an Ad.   I would consider being able to get a minimum of 1000 impressions of your ad each day before considering creating a new ad.

Effective Banner Sizes

When you create ads, you want to make sure you create them in the most common and effective styles.  If you find a great site to place an ad on, but don’t have your ad in the size they offer, then you are going to miss out or have additional work in managing the creation of a new ad.  Here are the most common ad sizes, with "effectiveness" in mind (I did not include some common sizes like regular skycraper because they are normally not effective enough to warrant the time and expense of running).

Here are the sizes I see as being the most effective at the time of writing this article , ranked in the order of effectiveness.

#6 is the 728 x 90 – Leaderboard which was too large to show on this page.

Effective Ad Locations

Here is a great Ad Placement Chart from Google . Here the darker the Ad, the more likely it is to convert. Don’t get hung up on the ad size, but rather focus on the location, as the ad size could vary.

Anatomy of an Ad

1. Colour Scheme – Blend in with Light Backgrounds, Stand out (contrast) with Dark Background.
2. Logo/Brand – If you have a known brand, brand it.  If not, don’t take up the space.
3. Headline – Should "interrupt" the reader and get their attention.
4. Image
5. Image Caption – Will be the most read part of the ad, must inform and intrigue.
6. Call to Action – Needs to be clear.

Ad Tips

1. Don’t auto-start audio.  If you have audio in an ad, make the user choice to hear it.
2. Sell an Offer, not a Product – Instead of Free Shipping, why not pay them for shipping.  Negative Shipping is an offer!
3. Don’t have anything blinking – it just annoys people.
4. Call to Action should stand out.
5. When trying to blend an ad into a site, don’t give the ad a border.
6. Use Animation if appropriate
7. Stay away from Red.
8. Use the word "Free" if appropriate.
9. Use a short message.
10. Direct Traffic to a custom landing page for that offer/ad.
11. Change out banners often to stop people from getting used to them.

Online Advertising Terms

Channel – The type of sites you want to target. i.e. Automotive.
CPI – The Cost-Per-Interstitial ad, which is an advertising page that is inserted in the site navigation flow like TV commercials.
CPV – Cost Per View
CPM – Cost Per 1000 Impressions.

Ad Networks

Once you have concluded your contest, and have the banners created. You are ready to return to the ad networks and sites you have decided to target.

• AdReady.com – Pre-Made Interactive Ads.  Easy for Small Business to get started.
• Clicksor.com – Friendly, helpful and affordable.  Good targeting.
• MyADMarket.com - Great Tutorials. Good place to start learning.  Great for targeting.
• AdOnion.com – Great for teenager audience, especially boys
• Project Wonderful.com – Targets niche BLOGs & sites with modest traffic.  Inexpensive.
• Tribalfusion.com – Place ads on Niche Sites.
• Advertising.com – For more experience Marketers.
• Doubleclick.com – Higher End Ad Network.  A Place to "graduate to".

Example

Here an an example of a well done banner ad. This is an up-and-coming online T-Shirt company called MyTShirtCompany.com doing a great job with Online Advertising. Notice the choice of Banner Ad, and how well the ad blends into the current site. I am sure this company is experimenting with placement, and their choice of advertising on a job search site is more of a test than a strategic placement. Who knows, it might just work well!

Its also nice to see the website system that drives this site (A project I directed) being used so well. I recently wrote an Internet Marketing Manual for the Application Service Provider (ASP) of this system with much the same information in it as in this post, so it appears my advice is being taken already and applied quite well.

Part of the Mix

I hope this helps businesses start or improve their online advertising.  Now is a great time to be into Ads as the economy has lead to lowering costs and less competition, while at the same time, the ad networks have released better targeting, especially for local ads.

Just remember, this needs to part of your online advertising mix.  For a word on that topic, visit
Banner Advertising Is But One Small Component Of Digital Marketing from Twist Image who is indexed as part of our eMarketing Search Engine as a great place to find Internet Marketing information.