Online Banner Advertising
Online banner ads are rectangular advertisements that appear on websites and vary greatly in what they look like and what they are about. But they all share the same common goal of encouraging a viewer to click on the ad and then be taken to the advertisers website or landing page.
Banner ads are available in many different sizes and are measured in “pixels.” A pixel is the smallest unit of color that makes up images on a computer screen. Popular sizes are long banners that run horizontally across the page (full banner 486 x 60 pixels), large square box banners typically placed on the side of the page (250 x 250 pixels), and button banners, typically with several grouped (125 x 125 pixels).
The banner ad size you choose for your online work-from-home business depends on your budget, the banner’s position on the website, the amount of traffic to the website, and how long the banner will be online.
What makes an advertisement effective?
As with all advertising, an effective banner ad is the product of a number of different elements.
First, your banner ad must be consistent with the website. In other words, if your online work-from-home business is all about helping people make money online, it’s doubtful you’ll get much of a response if you put your banner on a website about dog training.
The objective of the banner ad is to ‘sell the click’. Make sure your message is about a need, want, or concern about your product or service so that viewers are encouraged to click on the ad for more information. Ideally, you want to aim for one to five leads per day from a banner ad.
Don’t use a lot of fancy graphics and, strange as it sounds, don’t try to sell; use your message as a solution to a problem. For example, if your online work-from-home business is about weight loss, you might say something like “If you want to lose weight but can’t, click here to see the proven method that has helped thousands of people.”
Link the ad to a capture page with a signup form that provides a little more information and encourages the viewer to submit their name and email so you can get even more information about your product or services. Ideally, this information should be provided free of charge. Then, when they enter their details, they’ll be on your list and your autoresponder emails will do the rest.
You need to build a relationship with your customer before they buy from you.
Some other tips include placing your banner ads at the top of the page, rather than lower down, and making sure the website you’re advertising on gets enough traffic. If your online home business is targeting a competitive market, such as the online money making market, then I would recommend that you consider websites that receive more than 10,000 visitors per month.
You can check the traffic on the websites on several different online sources.
How to create an online banner ad
Once you have a website on which to advertise your work from your online business, you will need to provide the artwork for the banner. This is normally provided via an upload to a link that the website owner will provide to you. Often your affiliate partner or merchant for your online home business will have a banner design ready for you to upload to your chosen website. All you have to do is provide the link where the viewer will go when they click on your ad.
There are also several free online banner makers where you can create your own ad. You can also outsource the creation of your banner graphics. There are many online resources available.
How to book a banner ad online
Most websites will have an area where you will provide details of the costs of advertising on your website. If not, you can contact the website owner directly and ask for details.
To avoid having to contact many different websites to find out their rates and statistics, there are several “broker websites” that give you all the information. You can save time as these websites provide all the cost information for a wide variety of different websites.
The cost of banner ads is calculated in two ways. One is for a set period of time (usually 30 days) and the other is by the number of impressions (ie how often the ad is shown). If you are just getting started with your online business from home, I would recommend that you go for a certain time frame. This way, you’ll know exactly how much you’re spending over what period of time.
Does online banner advertising work?
Some web ‘experts’ say banner advertising is ineffective and others say it is a very successful way of driving traffic to your website.
As mentioned above, online banner advertising is just like any other type of advertising. You need to make sure that your banner grabs the attention of your target audience and generates interest in your product or service. The ad should encourage the viewer to want to know more and therefore take action by clicking on your ad.
If your banner ad has someone clicking on it, then you’ve done your job. It is then the job of your squeeze page or website page where you have sent the viewer to do their job. And that’s another story.