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Banner Advertising on Performance Advertising Networks
August 4 2009
If you're a small to midsized business looking to attract customers to your site while minimizing your risk, we recommend working with one of the top CPA (cost per acquisition) networks such as Linkshare, CJ or Clickbank.
As you've probably realized, search engine marketing is turning out to be quite an expensive means of advertising. Depending on what your'e trying to sell, the CPC's can vary considerably but in the past few years there's been an updwards trend in prices, a factor which has made it increasingly hard for small businesses to turn a positive ROI from SEM.
Therefore, in order to attract customers in the most effective way possible while still maintaining a unique identity we suggest using banners on a CPA basis. Risk is practically zero since you don't pay unless someone actually buys from you. Setup costs vary depending on the ad network but sometimes it's worth investing in a more reliable network that can assure you higher visibility and distribution amongst publishers.
If you really have a tight budget you can join simpler performance ad networks such as Clixgalore which requires a $75 deposit, and promote your affiliate program on your own by reaching out to publishers that may be interested in carrying your banner ads.
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Date: Aug-04-2009
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New Features on PointBanner.com
August 3 2009
We're continuously improving our site by making it easier and simpler for our users to order their banner ads with us. These are some of the latest features we've added:
1. Custom Banner Size - Many of our customers ask for custom banner sizes which are not typical standard sizes used for advertising. In order to accommodate these requests we've added a "Custom Size" function in Step 1 so that if you're looking for a banner which is not on our list, you can simply enter the width and the height of your desired banner and we'll take care of the rest.
2. Online Chat - We've implemented an online chat service for users that are having issues with ordering banners in the 3 step process.
3. Coupon Codes - Customers that repeatedly order multiple banners receive complimentary discount coupons which can be redeemed at time of purchase. If you're a Marketing Agency please contact us for coupon code details.
If you feel that there is something missing from our site, please send us an email and we'll do our best to accommodate your request.
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Date: Aug-03-2009
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PointBanner Press Release
July 9 2009
PointBanner.com Makes Banner Ad Production Easy and Affordable
New York, NY (PRWEB)
July 9, 2009 -- A new web service allows online marketers to quickly
order fully-customized banner ads and receive professionally designed,
campaign-ready graphics within 48 hours. Formed to help marketing
managers, small-business owners, affiliate marketers and eBay merchants
slash the cost of production to as low as $49 per ad, www.pointbanner.com improves campaign quality with eye-catching banners that are uniquely created for each client.
The PointBanner design team specializes in banner ad layout and has
created hundreds of original campaigns for companies of every size.
Clients select the ad size and submit wording and any desired artwork
in a simple process that takes less than two minutes. The finished
banner ad is delivered within 48 hours and clients can make up to three
revisions without any further charge.
"We don't use templates and make sure that each client receives an
entirely original design that reflects their unique style, brand and
business objectives. Great design is essential for an effective banner
campaign and we constantly hear from PointBanner users about the
excellent results they achieve with our layouts," said Guy Falkovitch,
PointBanner's Vice President of Business Development.
According to Aaron Ram, a successful affiliate marketer,
"PointBanner has not only reduced my cost per ad design by over 80%,
but they have also created an extremely professional look and feel for
my business. My PointBanner ads stand out and produce more clicks--and
that's what it's all about."
Julia Park is an eBay merchant and uses PointBanner to create
banners that complement her listings and direct buyers to other
offerings in her constantly-changing lineup. "PointBanner ads
distinguish my pages and help prevent shoppers from clicking through to
competing merchants. In this economy, I can't afford to lose a single
transaction and PointBanner has made it easy and affordable to create
banner ads that help sell more products."
PointBanner launched in June and has received rave reviews from the
online marketing community for its low cost, fast turnaround and high
quality designs. Visit www.pointbanner.com or www.pointbanner.com/blog for complete details.
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Date: Jul-09-2009
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Banner Ad Creators
July 1 2009
There are a number of do-it-yourself banner ad creation sites which utilize preexisting templates in which you can insert your desired text and images to create a basic looking banner.
1. Adready – Includes multiple templates and an easy to user interface for creating simple banners quickly and easily. Adready does not make money off this tool. In order to take advantage of the banner you’ve created you must use their program to manage your campaigns across the networks such as Google and Yahoo. Adready takes a cut from every dollar you spend on the campaign.
2. Google Display Ad Builder – In an attempt to convert its text advertisers into banner advertisers Google created a simple tool for building banners. The tool is very easy to use but the templates are extremely generic and the banners end up looking like YOU designed them.
3. Mybannermaker.com – A free tool primarily used by myspace users who want to create banners and slap them on their profile page. This is a bare bones banner creator which should probably only be used for testing purposes.
If you do not have an in house graphic designer, these banner creation tools can be a cheap practical solution if you’re going to run a quick test campaign with a budget of less than $100. However, if you plan on spending a decent amount on a banner ad campaign we recommend using a professional banner design service since that may make the difference between a successful campaign and a failed one.
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Date: Jul-01-2009
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Where should I place my banners?
June 12 2009
Most small and midsize advertisers do not have a large enough budget to contact large sites directly for banner placements therefore the best option is to utilize ad networks that distribute the banners for you. There are a number of useful ad networks that cater to small advertisers:
1. Google Ad Words Image Display - A few years ago Google expanded their offering from text ads only to display images as well. The system is simple and user friendly. They have an internal image ad builder but the result is an unprofessional template looking banner, therefore a professional design service is recommended. Payment is on a CPC or CPM basis.
2. Adbrite - Similar to Google’s network just much smaller. Simply upload your banner and choose a category in which you’d like your banner to appear. Payment is on a CPC or CPM basis.
3. Linkshare - There are countless affiliate networks, and Linkshare is one of the larger ones. Payment is on a CPA basis, meaning you will only pay if a user ends up taking action such as purchasing a product or service.
If you can afford it you can utilize an agency that will handle all your online marketing needs. Doing it on your own is quite simple actually, but tracking the campaign can be somewhat labor intensive if you are running your ads on multiple channels.
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Date: Jun-12-2009
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Popular Banner Sizes
June 9 2009
Currently the most common banner sizes are 728×90 (leaderboard), 160×600 (wide skyscraper) and 300×250 (medium rectangle).
Most major publishers use these standard IAB ad units. These three sizes are currently most popular, however design standards are changing all the time, and in a few years the prevalent unit sizes will most likely change.
If you are looking to run a basic campaign on one of the advertising networks we recommend starting off with these three basic sizes.
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Date: Jun-09-2009
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The Importance of a Professional Designer
June 6 2009
Choosing the right designer can make the difference between a successful online campaign and a failed one.
One may think that a banner ad is easy to design because of it’s relatively small size. True, banner ads are relatively small. Even a standard leaderboard (728×90) is much smaller than a typical ad you’ll find in a newspaper or a magazine. However, smaller ads are not necessarily easier to design.
As we mentioned in our last post, an effective banner ad takes into account multiple elements such as targeted messaging, call to action and cleanliness of design. Implementing these factors into one single ad requires experience and skill.
There are programs which allow users to put together simple banner ads using templates. These normally result in unattractive and unappealing banners. The amateur user tends to jam pack as much information as possible utilizing flashy and colorful fonts. A professional banner designer will balance out the usage of text and graphic, and will consider factors such as the purpose of the banner, the landing page, the type of service or product, usage of images, the color of the logo and so forth.
If you don’t want your business to look like a template, use a professional design service to create your banner ads.
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Date: Jun-06-2009
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Banner Design Tips
June 4 2009
Most medium and small advertisers are looking to create banners that will result in the highest click through rate. Since bidding toward display placements are usually performed on a CPM basis, an advertiser will seek the highest number of clicks per thousand of impressions, thus making the ad buy as economical as possible.
In order to generate the highest CTRs we recommend the following:
1. Keep it clean - Flashy banner ads do not necessarily attract attention. Simple and clean banners are much more prone to be clicked on than text packed ads.
2. Call to action - Placing a Buy Now, Click Here or Enter button will result in a higher CTR.
3. Targeted messaging - Users do not read ads, they browse through them. A short targeted message will be much more valuable than a text packed banner.
4. Animate your banners - Simple GIF animation can increase click rates significantly for the sole reason that more eyeballs will be gravitate towards the banner.
5. Avoid cheesiness - The internet is flooded with cheesy ads. In order to portray a professional and reliable service or product the banner ad should be professional and sharp.
The website is the face of the company and the banner is the face of the website. We recommend keeping the face as clean as possible.
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Date: Jun-04-2009
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