– “Maybe I should buy some advertising to promote my website?”
I bet this thought have visited every website owner at least once.
And it is very reasonable actually. Free traffic from Google is what most amateur site owners would go for, but it may take years of hard work to build up this source to some reasonable numbers. So the easiest way to bring quality traffic to your website in no time would be the ad networks (in case of course you have some money to spend).
And we’re about to share our experience with getting a high CTR in a well known banner ad network – BuySellAds.
I never click banners! Do they really work these days?
That’s a really good question and that is something I’ve asked myself before uploading any funds to BuySellAds. But then I noticed the amount of expensive ad spots sold out…
This is what the ad zones of Hongkiat look like for example:
2. You should be “above the fold”.
Placing your banner in the part of a webpage that’s visible without scrolling might sound as a “no-brainer”. Yet some people think that their “advertising creative” (i.e. banner design) is so awesome and eye-catching that people will notice it no matter what.
“Each time you opt to buy a banner that’s “below the fold” you consciously decrease your CTR.” – make sure you read this sentence at least 5 times.
3. Know who you’re talking to.
Once you have a list of websites related to your niche the next logical step would be to spy on their audience and see if they are of the same kind with your “typical customer”.
Don’t have a clue of where to get that data from? Here, grab the tools:
4. Size matters!
The smallest banner size you can purchase at BuySellAds would be 125px*125px and it’s obviously the cheapest option. But except for the well known argument of bigger things being much more noticeable, there’s more…
Smaller banners lead to more advertisers cluttered in one place. And you have much better chances of being noticed purchasing one of the three big banners as opposed to buying one of the six small ones.
That’s what I call a “Battle For Attention“:
There was an empty banner slot at DesignersTalk Forum, and we decided that “Me Gusta” Face is rather well known among designers and should definitely grab their attention: