Yes, Banner Ads Do Work!
We once created a banner ad with a great offer that got a 68% click through rate! That means out of 100 every people who opened the page the banner was on 68 or them clicked our banner!
We’ve never heard of a better CTR before or since – anywhere. The point is we know how to create very effective advertising. And now we’re doing it for you, free!
So given that you have a great offer and you put your banners in good positions, on high-traffic sites that are relevant to your market you’ll get fantastic traffic.
But unless you’re using them on a website you own, it probably won’t be cheap.
Large banners (say 700 x 80 pixels) with good positioning (ie at the top of the home page) can cost $7000 a month on popular dating sites.
Websites also use CPM to bill for advertising, which is Cost Per Thousand impressions (M is the Latin symbol for thousand). An impression is a single person looking at the webpage the banner is on. It doesn’t mean that they click on it or anything, just that they’ve probably seen it.
CPA is another way to pay for website advertising. It means Cost Per Action. It’s like Pay Per Click (PPC), but usually it will be used with a banner where you’re asking people to do something like give their email address.
However, if you’re already getting plenty of free traffic from product reviews, blogs articles etc, having banners in the mix is a great way to increase your overall traffic. That’s why major advertisers with deep pockets love banner ads – they really do work gangbusters when you have a great offer to go with them.
Never forget! With banners, or any form of advertising whatsoever, a great offer is crucial! No good offer, or angle, means no sale.
Graeme has been a professional marketer for over 17 years, growing many of the world's top brands. He now specializes in creating and marketing products on the internet that enrich other people's lives. Graeme, his wife Emma and their two children, live on the beautiful East Coast Bays in Auckland, NZ.