Technology
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Online Advertising Methods:
As the technology of the internet continues to increase in usability and availability, different avenues of advertising will spring up practically overnight. What methods are available to you now? Let's take a look.
Banner advertising
There are essentially two primary categories of banner advertising. (1) Free banner exchanges (2) Paid banner advertising. Banner advertising is displaying a non-animated or animated image on a commercial web site in the hopes that traffic visiting there will read, view and click-throughs to your site. The host site cannot guarantee this. Your banner must motivate people to act. This is done by developing inviting graphics, messages and offers to encourage a person to click on to find more about what you have to say. Now you can see that click-throughs that average 2 to 3 percent are a good buy if you're site is on a high traffic site.
Paid banner advertisements are on commercial sites, such as portals and directories which allow you to target specific portions of their audiences. You essentially buy placement for particular categories when people are searching for sites. The cost for this can range between $20 to $50 per thousand (CPM) to purchase a minimum number of impressions, usually around 100,000. This would mean that you're spending about $2,000 to $5,000 per month. Similar to advertising in trade or consumer print publications.
Free banner/link exchanges
Free banner exchanges or reciprocal linking sites are all over the place. It's a trade agreement to promote someone else, in exchange for them to promote you. Deals vary, of course depending upon the targeted traffic that you're aiming for. While these are free, this is by no means unfruitful. There are many high traffic exchange services that can generate brand awareness and traffic to your site.
Targeting
CPM will vary depending upon the traffic and specific audiences that commercial sites draw. The more targeted the site the higher the cost per thousand. For example, a site such as CNN would charge $15 to $35 per thousand, while a more targeted site on particular aviation we site would charge from $35 to $85 per thousand. Even though the CPM is higher on targeted sites, you're more likely to get higher returns as opposed to appealing to a broader, untargeted audience.
Sponsored Editorial
Some sites will allow advertisers to take the sponsorship of a web segment. For example a particular manufacturer may sponsor a portion of a home improvement web site. You see this type of thing in retail stores where specific manufacturers are sold. It is like they set up an in-store display.
Sponsored E-zines/E-newsletters
This form of direct marketing has exploded in the last year. Permission based e-zines are directed at a targeted audience and can deliver desired content to its users. These audience are usually very loyal and provides one of the most inexpensive advertising buys on the web. These rates can be as low as $50 per ad.
Sponsored Chatrooms
Another place that consumer gather is through online chatrooms. From technical content to entertainment discussion groups, providing your sponsorship to a particular site is another way to hit your targeted audience. Good ones are hard to find, so look long and choose wisely.
If you're marketing department has interns or additional staff that can pursue the web in order to find where your audience is at, it would pay good dividends to seek out the solid exchanges and reciprocal links to align yourself with. After all, it's only time. Use your advertising agency or web firm to target the high traffic sites and gather you advertising data for site sponsorships and banner placements.
Contact Empire for more information on where and who you can advertise with and how to get started. |
