Articles: Advertisers

Tutorial: Choosing the Right Websites for Your Ad Campaign

When you want to promote a product or service online, the first thing you will want to do is research the type of audience that will be interested in your product or service, and then find out what types of websites that audience likes to visit. It sounds simple enough, but there are some tips I would like to share with you to help you fine-tune your selections so that you can try to get the most out of your online ad campaigns.

Carefully Consider the Target Audience

If you are trying to sell a product that will make a web designer’s life much easier, your ad could probably do well on any blog or website in the Design and Development industry. But if you fine-tune your selections to websites that specifically speak to web designers, or if you advertise on a website that many web designers visit, then your ad may do better than if it was just on a general design or art blog - even if those fine-tuned sites have fewer page impressions than the larger, more general sites. Of course, the only way to really know if your selection is right for your campaign is to go ahead and purchase the first 30-day cycle and see how it does. There are many factors involved that go beyond the type website you are advertising on. You must also consider that the creative of your ad must be professional-looking and engaging so the visitors will want to click on it.

Evaluate the Website’s Traffic

When browsing our directory, you will see the number of monthly page impressions on the website’s listing page along with other details about the site. These impressions are real calculations by our system that are taken from the ad code on the website where your ad will be displayed. This is a calculation of the estimated impressions your ad can receive on that website in a 30-day period. If you want to have a greater impact with your ad campaign, it is usually best to purchase an ad that will serve more than 100,000 impressions per month. Anything less than 100,000 impressions may not be enough to make the impact you are looking for with your campaign. (Although in some niche markets where there aren’t as many high-traffic sites, the lower traffic sites may work just fine if you advertise on several sites at a time that are priced well.)

Review the Overall Design, Layout and Operation of the Website

Make sure that you review the layout of the website and that you are satisfied with the overall look and operation of the site. There are many different websites in our network, all with different types of looks and layouts. You will want to find the ones that are more in line with what you are looking for since that is where your ad will be.

We take great care in reviewing websites for our directory so that they are of a certain quality, and so that our advertisers have a large selection of great places to place their ads. Although very rare, sometimes after a website is accepted to our network, it may change ownership and changes may be made to the site that we would no longer approve of. So if you happen to come across a website in our directory that doesn't look like it belongs or that is not working properly or taking a very long time to load, please contact our Support Department to let us know. We always appreciate input from our users so that we can try to make our service the best that it can be.

Locate Where the Ads are in the Layout and Evaluate their Positioning

Some ads rotate and some don’t. If an ad rotates, then it means you will share that space with other ads, and the impression count on the Ad Detail page for that site reduces the impression calculation to give you the impressions that your particular ad will get in that rotated space. If you do not want to share ad rotations with other ads, you will want to make sure that you purchase an ad spot that does not rotate.

You will also want to look at where the ad is located on the site and how the ad zones are presented. Ads closer to the top of a site are usually priced higher because those are generally more visible to visitors and could get more clicks. Although you can also find some good deals on ads that are lower on a site as long as that site does not have long pages that scroll too far and as long as those ads are near some sort of visitor action, such as page navigation at the bottom of the page, etc.

The location and presentation of an ad is something you will want to consider on a case by case basis. There are many different ways in which websites present their ads, so you will want to be sure that your ad will be presented well - and if in doubt, try the spot you are considering for a month to see how it does.

Make Sure the Price is Right for You

You will want to weigh the ad spot’s selling points against the price it’s being offered at to make sure that you are not over-paying for the space. Just because an ad is at the top of a site doesn’t mean that you should pay double or triple the price of an ad that appears in the middle of a site. It all depends on the website’s traffic, the location of the ad, how many ads are already on the site, and the professionalism and organization of the site itself - so your ad doesn’t get lost.

In general, a good price to keep in mind is $1 for every 2,000 impressions. This is an average price to go by, and depending on the site, the size of the ad, the site’s niche market, and the owner of the website, these ad prices can vary greatly. Some sites charge much more than this average and some charge much less, so you will still want to factor in all of the things mentioned above that can affect how much you are willing to pay for an ad spot. Then if you are are happy with the results it gets during its first cycle, you can just keep things as they are and your ad will automatically renew for the next cycle. If you find that the campaign is not going as well as you had planned on that particular website, you can cancel the ad and it will not renew for the next cycle.

Standard or Non-Standard Ads

You will notice that many of the websites in our directory offer standard ad sizes. This is done by most website publishers mainly to benefit you - since you may already have your ads created at the standard sizes and would not need to spend anymore time or cost to create an ad with a more unique size. Depending on how you feel about spending the time and money to create a new ad for a specific website, you may want to stick to purchasing ads that are available at standard sizes that you already have created. Although this should not be the only thing that detracts you from purchasing a non-standard ad on a website if you like the website and feel that the ad spot may be great for your campaign.

Watch for Errors or Anything Else that Detracts from the Website’s Professionalism

When you are reviewing an ad spot on a website to purchase through our system, it is important to make sure that you understand from the ad’s description where it will be located on the site. If in doubt, or if you do not see the ad spot at all on the site, please feel free to send an email to our Support Department and we will be happy to clarify this for you.

If you see errors on one of the websites in our network, or if the site not working, you should delay your ad purchase on that site until we are able to clear things up with the website’s owner. Although this is rare, if you do run across a website such as this, we encourage you to let us know so we can work to correct it or remove the site from our directory.

When viewing our directory, it is always a good idea to review the live website of the ad(s) you want to purchase instead of just looking at the ad descriptions only. Doing this can also help you to visualize exactly where your ad will be on the live site.

Payment and Ad Tracking Options

When you purchase an ad through BuySellAds.com, you have the convenience of paying with Paypal, Credit Card or with funds in your Account Balance. In addition to this, you are able to login to your account to see the results of your ad campaigns - how many impressions your ad received, how many clicks it received, etc. You also have the assurance of knowing that we will make sure that you receive the service that you paid for on each website that you advertise on - and if not, we work with you and the Publisher to compensate you for any issues that may occur.

Good Luck!

I hope you found this article helpful as you select websites for your campaign. If at anytime you have a question or need help with anything involving your online campaign at BuySellAds.com, please don’t hesitate to send us an email through our Support Department. :)

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