Advertising Effectively

February 13th, 2007

This morning a potential advertising customer contacted me and asked how many clicks she would receive on her ad if she placed one. That’s a good question, but it isn’t one that webmasters can answer.

Advertising is an art and a science. How effective your ad campaign is depends on several factors. Here are some questions to ask yourself before launching an ad campaign.

1. Does the website reach my target market? If you are advertising something that has nothing to do with the website you are advertising on — you might want to rethink placing an ad there.

2. How much traffic does the website (and the page my ad will be on) receive? Webmasters should share their traffic stats openly. If they don’t, there is reason to hesitate advertising with them. Another quick test is to search on keyword terms you feel your target market would search on. Does the site you plan to advertise on rank in the search engines for these terms?

3. How effective is my ad? Does your ad catch the eye? Does it have a hook — something irresistible that will convert an ad view to a click? Is it original? If you are advertising a business opportunity, are you using the same ad as everyone else? Invest some thought and money into a decent ad design.

These are all obviously critical elements to a successful ad campaign. Two other benefits of advertising that don’t necessarily include click thrus are branding and seo.

Building trust in your brand, getting your company name and logo out there to your target market to see can be worth the ad fees alone. Choose website’s that you can see work to please their visitors. If the website has loyal traffic that trusts them, that creates a warm lead for you.

SEO, or search engine optimization involves many factors. Having links from other website’s coming to yours enhances your SEO strategy. Search engines consider links to your website a ‘vote’ for your site. Building many quality links to your website will result in better search engine results for your website.

I hope that’s helpful information! Remember to test all these factors. If one ad doesn’t work on a site, another might. Don’t be afraid to ask a webmaster to change your graphic or ad text if you decide something else will be more effective.

Join us over in the forum to discuss advertising your home business successfully!