How to Buy Online Advertising
If you are trying to increase the amount of traffic to your website then you have probably thought about purchasing online advertising. There are a lot of different options to choose from, but how do you know what is going to work best for you?
First off, you need to make sure that you know the terminology so you can figure out what exposure you would be getting for your money. Then it's just a matter of treating your advertising purchase like you would any other buying decision. This means you will only want to work with advertisers that give you stats and numbers that enable you to make an informed decision.
Cost
In order to know what the cost is going to be you have to know how you will be charged. Online there are three different ways to price ads:
- Cost per Click (CPC) - You get charged a certain amount every time someone clicks through the ad to your site. Google's Adwords is a prime example.
- Cost per Impression (CPM or CPI) - It doesn't matter if the ad is clicked or not. You pay a certain amount and your ad will be shown a certain number of times. Normally it's billed out as cost per 1,000 impressions.
- Flat Rate - your ad runs for a certain period of time.
Evaluate
Once you know how you will be billed for the online advertising, you need to know just how many visitors you should expect. That is why you need to look at:
- Traffic Numbers - get statistics on unique visitors and unique pageviews so you can get an idea of the traffic the site receives.
- Relevance - will that site's visitors be interested in what your ad is offering? What percentage will relate to your niche?
- Positioning - the best spots are above the fold and within the content. If you are in the middle of a 125 banner farm in the sidebar or in the footer or a site, don't expect to stand out.
- Size of the Ad - bigger ads allow you to display more information and it gives you a chance to stand out in the page.
Shop Around
You normally check prices from a few different places before making a buying decision right? You have to do the same here. Check similar sites to see where you would get the best deal. You won't be right all of the time on what site is going to be the best fit for your business, but shopping around will help make sure you don't get ripped off.
If you are just starting out with online advertising, then test the waters first. You will be able to get some data of your own on click through rates of different ads, conversion rates from those visitors, and average sale price. With these numbers you can figure out just how much money you will make from the visitors and you won't have to shop around for the cheapest option. Instead, you can go with all options that you think will be profitable.