Gabriel Walton's Blog

Banner advertising is a rather effective marketing strategy. Banners are images such as .gif or .jpg files that contain a link. If a prospective customer clicks on the image, they are taken directly to the location that the link points to. In this case let’s say your website.

One of the great things about banner advertising is that you are able to target the exact person you are looking for. Simply place the advertisements on website that your target audience would be interested in.

Here are some important terms that you need to know before getting started using banner advertising as one of your marketing strategies:

Impression

Each time your banner advertisement is loaded on a website, this is called an “impression.”

Click

Any time someone clicks on one of your banner advertisements, this is counted as a “click.”

CPM – Cost per thousand

This is one method of measuring how much you will pay for running a banner advertisement. Many times you will be charged on a “CPM basis” rate. This means you will be charged for every thousand impressions. A “$1.50 CPM” means that you will be billed $1.50 for every thousand impressions that your banner advertisement receives.

CPA – Cost per action

This is one method of measuring how much you will pay for running a banner advertisement which is based on the actions taken with your ad. An action is usually considered a click, but conversions may also be included in these actions. If you are offered banner advertising on a “CPA basis” you will be charged when someone actually clicks on your banner advertisement. This is different from impressions.

CTR – Click through rate

This is a ratio of clicks on your ad and how many times that you had an impression for your ad. Think of it this way. You have 1000 impressions (ad views) on a website, and 14 people click on your banner advertisement, that is a CTR of 1.4%. If your specific action is a “click” and you spend $25.00 to get 63 clicks, than your cost per action is roughly $0.40.

Cost per conversion

This is how much it costs for each conversion. You need to ensure that you are not paying more for your banner advertisement campaigns then you would make from conversions. This is an easy way to figure it out. If you spend $25.00 on 5 leads, your cost per conversion is $5.00.

Publisher

These are the websites that will accept your banner advertisement on their site.

Advertiser

The person or business placing the banner advertisement.

I hope this helps. Knowing the terms and what to look for really should help you develop your ability to use banner advertising as effective marketing strategies.

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