Posts Tagged ‘ppc’
Banner Advertising: News Of Its Demise Is Premature
Posted by Alfred Lancer in Email Marketing on August 31st, 2010
You have seen them all over the internet — blinking, flashing, animated and garish. You vow that you will not contribute to this internet graffiti. You feel smug with your decision because after all banner advertising is dead.
Wrong. Banner advertising is not dead — and in fact it is still an effective internet marketing tool. However banner advertising has evolved — or rather I should say successful banner advertising has evolved. Some of the horrible eye-damaging banner ads still exist but successful, knowledgable internet entrepreneurs have long abandoned those marketing efforts and instead concentrated on targeted, tasteful, and trim banner ads.
Banner ads have a bad reputation in part because of the proliferation of banner farms that killed all the banner swap programs (or at least made them completely ineffectual). Also we all have memories of those hideous banners flashing across the top of so many web sites.
Banners have come along way since then and a cleverly designed banner can be a real asset to any advertising campaign. Also don’t forget that you don’t have to use one of those big giant banners that span the width of the screen. You can use smaller simple ads that can fit easily into the sidebar or special box on a web site so they can suit the design and work more effectively.
It is also important that you pay close attention to what sites you will choose for displaying your banner. IE. A site about web development for your web hosting service ad or a site about parenting for your ad promoting your potty training book.
Many text link and pay per click advertising vendors also offer the option of banner ads. Similarly many ezine and newsletter publishers sell space on their sites.
And savvy internet marketers are taking them up on these advertising opportunities.
WHY USE BANNER ADVERTISING?
Consumer research historically shows that most people see an ad several times before they take action. Banners allow you to display your ad over a period of time, increasing the chances that a prospect will see your ad and remember it.
Your banner ad can be targeted to specific audiences and displayed on internet pages and sites matched to that specific audience.
People seeing your advertisement can instantly click through to your web site store to to learn more or to make a purchase on the spot.
You can track your results and make adjustments to your campaigns based on response. Analyzing your results can help you finetune your banner, landing page, or target audience to improve your response and sales.
Banner advertising is really a buyers market, as there is always more banner spaces available than advertisers need or want, which means you can find many bargains available.
IMPORTANT POINTS TO CONSIDER WHEN PLANNING YOUR BANNER AD CAMPAIGN
There are several aspects to consider when planning out your banner advertising campaign.
The first consideration should be your ad graphic itself. These are usually animated GIF images but remember you want to attract customers — not simply attention — and remember the overall tone of your ad campaign when designing your graphic. Also keep in mind that many sites limit the file size of the graphic to somewhere between 12 and 16 KB.
Your banner can come in variety of sizes. The full banner size is 468 x 60 pixels. Some other standard banner sizes include:
Size(pixels).Type 468 x 60…..Full banner 234 x 60…..Half banner 392 x 72…..Full banner with vertical navigation bar 120 x 240….Vertical banner 125 x 125….Square button 120 x 90…..Button #1 120 x 60…..Button #2 88 x 31……Micro button
Your graphic will be hyperlinked to a target url of your choice so you may want to spend some time planning how you will track traffic and clicks. Some programs provide a tracking and statistics service for you but most individual sites can’t offer that information.
When selecting where to display your banner ad the first consideration should really be choosing a site offering information that appeals to your target audience. A high-traffic dating site isn’t going to be much good for advertising your maternity clothing line, for example.
Then you should look at traffic. When looking at site stats you want to make sure you focus on page views or page impressions rather than hits (which may count individually each graphic viewed). Depending on your banner and market you may be primarily concerned with unique page impressions.
Banner advertising is often sold by CPM (Cost Per Thousand displays, the Roman numeral “M” stands for one thousand). Many sites also offer a fixed rate price for a set period of time.
Many marketers do not concern themselves as much with click-through rates and instead see banner ads as “branding” tools. They create brand awareness and a brand image in the viewer’s mind. The hope is that when the viewer gets ready to make a purchase then your “brand” pops into their mind. Branding can also generate sales over the long-term. Branding is difficult to measure, but can be very powerful.
If you have a big advertising budget then you might want to consider an ad agency or media buyer. They can offer a lot of value for the dollar because they have the experience, knowledge, and contacts to make the most of your budget.
It is quite possible to be your own media buyer, if you are willing and able to handle the increased workload. The biggest difficulty is finding the right sites on which to advertise your product or service. Then after you find a site that might be a good match you need to negotiate the best possible deal. It is important you be as knowledgeable as possible as it is a buyer’s market and you don’t want to pay too much. Of course you also don’t want to alienate a web master whose site is a perfect match for you.
You also have the option to buy banner space on many search engines and directories. Often this option allows you to display your ad only to a targeted audience which can obviously increase your chances for a successful campaign but it can be a pricey option.
Banner ad networks are another targeted option that might be more affordable. Individual web site owners contract with a single company to serve their banner ads and handle ad sales for them. In turn, these networks divide their sites into categories and subcategories to allow advertisers to advertise on particular sites within the network that are the most highly targeted. They also offer very sophisticated tracking tools that give you lots of valuable information about who is visiting your site, and what actions they are taking.
Some networks offer pay-per-click advertising which only charges you when someone clicks on your banner and comes to your site. However, this approach is subject to fraud by unscrupulous site owners.
A pay-per-sale network, otherwise known as an affiliate program, only charges the advertiser when a purchase is actually made. The advertiser pays both the affiliate and the network but only when there is a sale. Of course the competition to attract quality affiliates is high so while this can be effective it shouldn’t be the only method of banner advertising you use.
And some final banner advertising tips:
* Keep your message brief, direct and simple. * Attract more attention using words such as “free” and “now”. * Put “click here” somewhere on the banner. * Create different versions of the banner. * Animate your banner but only if it improves it. * Keep the file size as small as possible.
You can find more Banner Advertising Articles at Find Articles
The Right Keywords: Target Your Online Audience And Increase Your Online Search Results
Posted by Ryan M Cruise in SEO on August 28th, 2010
The internet has connected the world in ways that it has never been connected before. Information, goods, and services can be found in seconds. You can connect with individuals on the other side of the globe and find old friends who you haven’t seen for years on social networking sites.
More and more businesses are taking advantage of this network. Today, nearly 97 percent of consumers go online to find local products and services. The phone book is out of date and business owners who want to succeed know that they must establish an online presence.
Many business owners do not know how to increase their website traffic and search results. There are many ways to do this organically and for free. One of the best ways to establish credibility with Google is to optimize your website with targeted keywords and meta tag descriptions. Often business owners just use their company name as the title of their page, but individuals do not usually search for services by company name.
To start, you must consider what keywords people would type in when searching for services or products in your particular industry. Then you should use those keywords in your website title, description, page headers, and subheaders. When Google crawls your site, it will see a consistency in the keywords that you use throughout your site and it will rank you higher for those keywords. This means that you have a better chance of showing up in the top results when those keywords are searched.
Here is one fun example. Let’s say you produce orange faux fur coats and your company name is Fuzzy Oranges. People looking for orange faux fur coats probably do not know of your company and will therefore not search for your exact company name. They will search fur coats, orange fur coats, orange faux fur coats, etc. These are the keywords that you want to permeate your website with–everywhere from the website title to the headers that you use on each page. The same goes for any business from landscaping to accounting.
It is also important to include your location if you are a local company rather than a national company. This is important because when individuals search for products and services they often include the city in which they live. If someone is looking for a bartending school in Phoenix, they will probably search Phoenix bartending school, bartending schools in Phoenix, and so on. And these are the type of keywords you should be targeting to reach your audience and increase your search results.
There are also many companies who can do this for you. They have years of expertise in finding the best ways to increase your online marketing efforts. This also leaves you time to do what you do best, whether it be building homes or planting trees.
Looking to find the best deal on Phoenix SEO services, then visit www.localworkmarketing.com to find the best advice from a Phoenix internet marketing company with both national and local clients.
The Modern Role Of SEO And Web Development Companies
Posted by Yigal Lampert in SEO on August 27th, 2010
A web consultant or Internet Agent is a person or company that specializes in all areas of a Website from web development to content creation and search engine optimization. Typically web consultants have been more of a temporary position, offering help when a company is redesigning a website or looking to better market their website. Web consultants are usually kept using a retainer but sometimes can be paid monthly. Many Start-Up Companies will employ a web consultant to help get there website up and running. The web consultant will help with everything from layout and design to function and marketing. Generally a web consultant will move on once the website is up and running. As society moves into web 2.0 and the need for constant content management is essential, businesses will start to hire web consultants to work full time on their website. Tasks can include blogging, updating content, social marketing, search engine optimization, analyzing traffic, building backlinks, and managing directories.
Of course, Search engine optimization (SEO) and Pay-Per-Click advertising (PPC) are the primary functions of a web development and marketing company. SEO starts with building search engine friendly code and structure. Without a proper foundation, all subsequent SEO efforts are rendered less effective. Identifying the key terms relevant to your business will improve traffic to your site, and understanding how the search engines index content, is the key to optimizing your website. It is just as important to track and document the website’s performance in order to maximize the return of your marketing dollars.
A good web development and marketing company will take the time to study your business and your target market. Often they will contract an outside advertising and marketing expert that specializes in your specific industry. By enlisting the efforts of experts in your field they can customize your marketing campaigns in order to focus on a specific demographic. Analyzing target markets is essential. A web consultant can create data charts which outline which specific keywords will give you the best chance to convert more business, and increase your ROI (return on investment).
SEO is to long term gains as PPC is to immediate returns. Pay-per-click advertising gets your website visible for a price. It’s like having a first class ticket on Google Airlines. All you do is set up your PPC account, identify the best key phrases for your money, then closely monitor your company’s campaigns to maximize advertising revenue.
Overall web consultants and internet agents are an up-and-coming industry that will get larger as more and more businesses rely on the internet for business.
Contact Yigal Lampert for more helpful money making marketing secrets.
Pay Per Click Marketing
Posted by Angela Werner in Pay-Per-Click Marketing on August 20th, 2010
Even though there are many new methods of online marketing, there are still many marketers who like to use the tradition route of PPC or Pay-Per-Click marketing. You can’t discount the fact that this method is still more effective than ever. How many people around the world use search engines? These are the people your PPC ads will appear to.
However, because PPC marketing involves money, you need to be very careful when it comes to making your decisions. To help you, here are some tips:
Opt for niche Pay-Per-Click sites.
Sure, Google Adwords and Yahoo’s Overture are two of the best PPC websites you can choose for a number of reasons. They’re huge, you can get excellent customer support, they have very high traffic and they may provide you with high ROIs.
However these sites also have one problem: competition. There are thousands of different PPC marketers who belong to these two websites, so unless you have a very large budget for your ads and you can create powerful landing pages, you may never be clicked on by your target market.
Hence, make time for niche PPC sites. These are pretty small with traffic which could only be in the thousands, but competition is also somewhat low. On these sites, such as Facebook, it’s easier for you to be at par with your competitors. Moreover, since it’s already niche, traffic is mostly targeted. A lot of businesspersons have actually obtained better ROI from advertising on these websites.
Focus on Landing Pages
What is a landing page? When a search engine user clicks your ad, they are directed to a new page. This does not have to be the homepage to your website. In fact it will be more productive if you direct them to a page that will convert them from a user to a subscriber of your newsletter or even a new customer for your business. A landing page is also known as a lead generation page.
Creating a dynamic landing page, therefore, is crucial for the success of your PPC marketing. Ad2Action.com is in the business of creating the most effective and easy-to-customize graphics and templates for landing pages which accomplish the conversion goals above. You can also create multiple landing pages and test them against each other to determine which page obtain the highest number of click-through rates.
Choose your keywords well.
This is actually one of the most frequently repeated tips you’ll get with PPC marketing, yet surprisingly, it’s also one of the most often ignored.
Q: Why are keywords so important in PPC? A: The appearance of your ads will depend on the keywords you’ve picked. They should match those words entered into search engines by users looking for information. So if you’re selling Mac computers, your ads will appear only if users will look for “Mac computers for sale” or “where to buy Mac computers.”
There are 2 different types of keywords that can be chosen: general or targeted. Of those two, you should place more emphasis on the niche-targeted keywords. These are words/or phrases that can be commonly utilized by your target customers. Using the example of selling Macs: If you are selling used Mac computers, you don’t just select “Mac computers for sale” but you would use “second hand [or used] Mac computers for sale.
For information on landing pages or where to obtain them Click Here