If you are going to be placing ads on your website, you'll want to put some thought into how you'll integrate them. Poor integration of ads into your website will cause visitors to click away fast. Successful integration of ads into your site can be highly profitable. Before I show you where to position ads, I want to mention a few important points about ads.
1. Ratio of ads to content
How many ads should you place on your website? There is an optimum ratio of ads to content. If your website has too high a proportion of advertising relative to content, the traffic on your website will suffer and you will lose money. If your website has too low a portion of advertising relative to content, the sales on your website will suffer and you will lose money.
What is the optimum ratio of ads to content? I can't point to any studies, but I feel the optimum ratio is somewhere around 20 to 25 percent ads relative to content. Go much above that ratio and, despite more ads, the revenue from your site goes down. But, there are ways to exceed that ratio and still make more money.
Ads as a service
Advertisements can provide useful information, as well as content. In that case, the ads become content. Here's an example. Rather than post ads that pay you the highest commission, post ads that provide the best value to the visitors to your website. These are ads where the value is so good you might respond to the ad yourself. This type of ad is more of a service than an advertisement.
Another example is ads for gifts around the holidays. People expect and are not turned off by an increase in ads around the holidays. Finding gifts for everyone on your list is difficult work, and people appreciate gift ideas. Again, this type of ad is more of a service than an advertisement.
You can safely exceed the normal ratio of ads to content if you hide the ads in the content. An example of this is product "reviews". For example, computer magazines are almost 100 percent advertising posing as product reviews.
2. Repetition of ads and ad management
I have seen websites that display the exact same banner on every page. If I didn't respond to the banner on the first page, what makes them think I will repond to it on the second, third ... hundredth page?
Displaying the same banner on every page of your website is annoying to your website's visitors, and a money losing propostion for you. Keep your ads fresh. Ads are boring enough without repeating the same ad over and over. Display a variety of ads, and use an ad management system. An example of an ad management system is a banner rotator.
3. Ad type relative to response rate
I have heard claims that text ads receive the highest reponse. I'm sure these results are not related to whether the ad is text or graphics, but more likely related to the fact that text ads are usually placed in the more responsive areas of a webpage. All thing being equal, a graphic ad will always get better response than a text ad.
A graphic ad will get higher response than a text ad, and an animated graphic ad will get higher response than a static graphic ad. But animation can be taken to an extreme. Some types of animation are annoying and not only does the ad get a low response, but it also causes visitors to click away from your website.
Examples of annoying animated ads are banners that flash or jiggle or do something else that distracts the visitor so they can't read the webpage content. Those visitors that don't click away will scroll the webpage so this type of ad goes off screen while they try to read the webpage.
A secret few advertising designers know is that the graphic that will get the most attention is a picture of a human face. People are genetically predisposed to look at a human face in their view area. Try it yourself while you're browsing the web. If a webpage has a human face on it, that's the first thing you will look at.
Where to position ads on your webpage
To discuss where to place ads on a webpage, we need to divide a page into five sections as listed below.
Note: There is a sixth area of the webpage which is the popup window. There are many forms of popup windows; pop-over, pop-under, delayed, and exit. The polite way to use popup windows is the self-closing popup window. Because of popup window blockers, popup windows are much less effective today, and, from my own experience, when I tried using popup windows, the page views on my website dropped by 50 percent.
The most common position to place advertising banners is in the header section of a webpage. Web users have programmed themselves to ignore banners in this position. The response rate of banners in the header section of webpages has dropped to something like .0001 percent. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has tried to overcome this problem by defining giant (what I call "battleship size") banners. I don't know of any studies that show this works.
Using banners in the head section of your webpage is a waste of processor time, but most webpages still use them. Making a sale this way is a long shot. Banners in the footer section of a webpage are even less responsive.
Actually Web users have programmed themselves to ignore all advertising on the web. However, from my own experience, you can get some response from ads in the left and right margins of a webpage. Most websites are designed with the menu in the left margin and possibly ads in the right margin. This means if the user has a low resolution display, depending upon the width of the webpage, the advertising may be off the screen.
Place your menu in the right margin and use the left margin for advertising. This places the user with a low resolution display in the positon of having to scroll to view the menu. Too bad. They should get a bigger display. Website revenue comes first.
The most responsive position to put your ads is in the center column of the webpage along with the content. As visitors are reading the article on the webpage, they come upon the ad. It's unavoidable.
If you imagine the center column of your webpage divided into three parts; top, middle, and bottom, the most responsive position for your ad will be right in the middle. As the visitors are reading the article on the webpage, they are forced to look at the ad as they continue to the lower part of the article. This might be a little annoying to the reader, but let's hope your content is worth that slight annoyance.
I would recommend placing your ad at the bottom of the center column. As visitors read the article on the webpage, they end up looking at your ad. This is almost as effective as placing the ad in the middle of the column, and a lot less annoying to the reader.
As you can see, how you integrate advertising into your webpages has a major impact on your ability to produce revenue from your website. Poor ad integration will cause visitors to click away. Proper integration can make your website highly profitable. But, ad positon is not the only determining factor, don't forget the ratio of ads to content, ad management, and ad type relative to response rate.
Copyright(C) 2004 Bucaro TecHelp.
Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.
About The Author
Stephen Bucaro
To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit bucarotechelp.com
green cleaning service Park Ridge ..Website design is a very competitive area and there is... Read More
Many businesses want a simple website where they tell people... Read More
Public domain gives you a head start creating ebooks, ecourses,... Read More
A long, long time ago? In a galaxy far, far... Read More
Your web site should always adhere to standards!A professional web... Read More
Increasing the length of time a visitor is on your... Read More
You have only 10 seconds to impress your potential buyer.... Read More
Tips to brand your websiteInclude your logo in all pages.... Read More
Everything you say and do says something about you. This... Read More
If someone doesn't know you personally, will they trust you... Read More
It starts off simply; a few HTML pages, a few... Read More
No question about it, web design is an art. Finding... Read More
Your website design may be affecting your sales in ways... Read More
Over the course of the last decade, the Internet has... Read More
Graphics are fun, but if you put in too many... Read More
In my last article entitled, Maximizing The True Value Of... Read More
Design sells. It's something that all of us know, but... Read More
What's happening to good web site design? Somehow we creative... Read More
Should Generating Revenue From A Website Be The Prime Motivator?... Read More
There are plenty of web sites out there in which... Read More
So your web site's online and you've got high rankings... Read More
Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) allows you to create fast loading... Read More
Flash is a powerful technology that can help you create... Read More
Designing your own successful web page can seem difficult and... Read More
So you've decided to take the plunge. You know that... Read More
emergency cleaning services Morton Grove ..Whether you're giving a critical sales presentation to a client,... Read More
Creating your own website is great fun! But how is... Read More
Due to the large number of people offering web design... Read More
When creating an e-cover the what's the first thought that... Read More
As a graphic designer, you are sitting on a gold... Read More
You can create a website that attracts customers, not repels... Read More
In today's world, a web site is virtually mandatory for... Read More
There are many companies who build websites, all of which... Read More
Getting a customer is not easy.Getting a visitor to decide... Read More
Mechanical spiders have to eat. In fact, they usually have... Read More
Any design on a web application involves the effective input... Read More
What's happening to good web site design? Somehow we creative... Read More
You've designed your logo, and you're ready to print your... Read More
When it comes to marketing your website, you should really... Read More
There is a widespread confusion among lots of new website... Read More
Know what you wantMake sure you know why you... Read More
Want to know what the worst thing to say on... Read More
Your home page is the most important page of your... Read More
Website design is a very competitive area and there is... Read More
If you are going to have a web presence for... Read More
No matter what product or service you're promoting, unless you... Read More
Imagine you're going on a blind date. You've heard wonderful... Read More
No, that's not the real question. The real question is... Read More
Websites that have multiple pages usually have a Frequently Asked... Read More
When designing your website, remember to avoid useless and confusing... Read More
Web Design |