Selling Banner Space

You've heard there's money to be made selling ad space on your Web site, but you're a little unclear about the details? Folks on ISP-Marketing fill in the blanks.

[December 30, 1999]

On ISP-Marketing in September 1999, KW posted this basic question about online advertising:

"Can someone explain 'CPM' for me and how online advertising pricing works? I know it means 'cost per thousand,' but I'm a little fuzzy on the thinking behind this pricing scheme . . . and what are 'guaranteed impressions."

One respondent provided a detailed explanation of online advertising basics:

[RC wrote] "Banner advertising is generally billed in one of three ways: by 'impressions'—the number of times a banner will be displayed on a page—by 'click-throughs,'—how many times a viewer actually clicks on an ad to go to the advertised site—or by a set period of time it will be displayed. The most common billing method seems to be to sell impression at a CPM rate. 'Guaranteed impressions' simply means that you pre-subscribe how many times a banner will be displayed, as opposed to displaying it for a set period of time."

Another respondent sought to clarify the latter point:

[KM added this] "Guaranteed impression simply means that your message will be displayed a guaranteed number of times. One reason that CPMs often seem low is that X number of displays doesn't mean X number of people have seen the banner. Many banners get displayed on areas of pages (like the bottom), that don't get seen often. Then again, a person who frequents your site may see a banner 10 or 20 times—which is a lot different than 10 or 20 people seeing it once."

The following month (October, 1999), JF posted a closey related banner-ad question—again on ISP-Marketing:

"We'd like to begin selling banner space on our Web site. Anybody have any suggestions on how to go about getting the banners for it?"

 

Several respondents referred JF to online companies:

[AB wrote] "Check out Flycast Communications (http://www.flycast.com). They have a system for selling your banner inventory to interested parties. Also visit Signupsales.com (http://www.signupsales.com) for similar deals.

"Flycast Communications specializes in direct-response advertising solutions. Signupsales.com creates customized advertising packages using a variety of methods based on parameters determined by the customer."

[KF offered these suggestions] "I have begun utilizing Banner Network and ClickTrade from Microsoft's bCentral.com (http://www.bcentral.com). It takes about half an hour to set up an account, and the database allows you to target services that may best fit your Web site. Most opportunities are based on click-throughs and I've seen a wide range of payments for clicks."

Another respondent stressed the importance of targeting advertising to specific audiences:

[MH wrote] "Click-through rates have dropped quite a bit since banners are no longer new and it's no longer 'cool' to see a banner turn into another page. The bottom line: Target your ads for the best results. My favorite ad tag line for a banner network says:'Don't hawk Steak to a Vegetarian.'"

One respondent had some reservations about the revenue potential of banner ads.

[RL wrote] "I've never made more than $125 a month from ClickTrade even with high traffic, a good banner-Website match, and $0.10 per click revenue. It's nice to have the money but it's not going to do huge wonders for your bottom line. They do pay on time though.

Which prompted one respondent to suggest another option for online marketing:

[WR added this thought] "Anyone who is considering ad revenue sources needs to consider direct e-mail marketing to their members/subscribers."

—End

For another discussion of banner ad revenue,
read Jason Zigmont's Making Banner Ads Work for You