Articles: Advertisers

Tutorial: How to Purchase an Ad

In this tutorial, I will walk you through this process so you will know exactly what to expect when you purchase your first ad. We've tried to make this process as easy as possible for you, but having this tutorial to go by will hopefully make it even easier.

1. Login to your account and click on the Buy Ads button at the top of your dashboard. This will take you to our directory where you can browse the websites in our network to purchase an ad. If you need help determining which websites to purchase an ad on, you may also want to read our tutorial, Choosing the Right Websites for Your Ad Campaign.

2. When you have found a website that you want to advertise on, just click on the green "Buy Now" button next to the ad zone that you wish to purchase.

3. You will now see the amount of the ad you just purchased next to the red "Cart" button in the top red navigation bar of the site (as seen in the screenshot above). Once you are finished selecting the ads you want to purchase on that site or any others, you will click on that red "Cart" button to begin the checkout process. (For the purpose of this tutorial, only one ad will be purchased.)

4. After you click on "Cart", you will see a page that lists the ad you just purchased as well as a message in a yellow box that you will need to upload your creative for the ad before continuing with the checkout. You will need to make sure that you have your ad already created for the size you purchased in GIF, JPEG or PNG format. (If you do not have an ad created or do not have a way to create your ad with a graphics program on your computer, you can hire a company such as Right Banners to create an ad for you.) Once you have your ad ready to upload from your computer, just click on the blue "Add Creative" link on that page.

5. On this screen, you will see 3 form fields that you will need to complete for your ad creative. The Alternate Text field is the alternate text for the image of your ad. This can be the title of your ad campaign or just the title of the website you are advertising. The Link field is where you will put the link that the ad will direct visitors to. For the Image field, you will need to click on the "Browse" button to select the image of the ad from your computer. (This field will not allow URL's of images hosted on a website. The image needs to be uploaded from your computer.)

When you are done, just click on the green "Save" button.

6. You will now see a screen that lists your ad purchase along with a thumbnail of the ad you just uploaded. All you need to do now is click on the green "Checkout" button to complete your purchase. You will be able to pay with funds from your account, a credit card or Payal.

After you have paid, the publisher of the website will have 24 hours to approve your ad creative. If a publisher fails to approve or deny your ad within 24 hours, we will approve the ad for the publisher. Once the ad is approved, your ad will be live on the website within minutes. (If your ad is denied by the publisher, you will be given a reason for the denial, and in most cases you will have the option to revise the creative per the publisher's change request. If for some reason the publisher is unable to accept your ad at all, then you will not be charged for the ad and the ad will not run on the website.)

I hope this tutorial helps you as you purchase your first ad. If you have any questions or concerns about an ad that you are purchasing, please let us know by contacting our Support Department so we can assist you.

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