Banners are the rectangular advertisements at the top of a web page which promote a web site. Visitors can click on these banner advertisements to be taken to a web site. A banner acts as a billboard, advertising sites to passers-by, and is a tool for driving traffic to web sites.
The effectiveness of this can vary greatly , basically you will need to try several sites and several banner designs and keep in mind the tips below.
Use the word "free". People love deals especially when they are free. The word free raises the click rate. If your offer involves anything free make sure you advertise it in the banner.
Pose Questions. In your banner pose a question. they entice people to click on your banner.
Use Colour. Research has shown that blue, green and yellow work best.
Make the Offer Clear. State clearly in your banner what you are offering and how easy it is to get. The better the offer the better the response.
Targeted Audience is Best. If you specify your audience you get responses from a targeted and qualified audience rather than simply attracting non buyers by clever ad.
Use, but don't overuse, Animation. Use it to catch a user's eye. Avoid excessive flashing too much can be irritating.
Call to Action. Telling people what to do increases response rates eg "click here", "enter here" and so on.
Incentives. Everybody likes a good offer. Incentives are very effective in getting the sale.
Do your Homework. the chances of completing a sale are much improved if you are familiar with your product and understand your target market.
Link exchange banners (free) are very different to paid banners. The major difference between link exchanges and paid banners. You can choose a page where your banner will appear. This page should always be on a topic very close to, or exactly the same as yours, so if a visitor clicks through to your page that person is already interested in what you have to offer and is more likely to buy your product. With free banners you have very little control on placement and the results may not be what you expect.
When joining a banner exchange, you enter your banner ad into the exchange. Then, you place a html code on your website, that displays a banner every time you get a visitor to your site. The banner exchange has lots of other websites with this html code on them, so they can display a significant volume of banners throughout the network of member sites.
Then, there is an "exchange" of banner impressions: For every two banners you show on your website (every two visitors/hits/page views you have on your website)your banner will be displayed once on another banner exchange member website.
So, if you have 200 page views/visitors/hits on your website, your banner will be displayed 100 times on other websites in the banner exchange.
If we assume that your banner has a CTR (Click Through Ratio) of 1%, one out of 100 people who sees your banner will click on it, and visit your website. that is for every 200 visitors you have to your website, you will get ONE - extra visitor from the banner exchange.
If your web site receives 25,000 or more page views per month, then you should consider selling banners. If your page views per month are lower then to be successful you will need to have very targeted content.
Search and contact companies you think would be interested in advertising on your site.
Run a banner ad on your site promoting space available.
This will depend on your traffic and price per thousand impressions (CPM). As an example of CPM for say 35,000 impressions per month for a CPM of $25.00, you would receive $875.00 per month.