By AngelaSigning up for an account and being accepted to the BuySellAds.com Network is exciting. It means that the website you’ve worked so hard on is ready to sell ad space. You are officialy in the website real estate business, and it has real value, so don’t sell yourself short. Educate yourself with this article on how to best price and place your ads.
The process of deciding where to place the ads, how many ads to offer and how much to charge for those ads can be a little overwhelming if you haven’t done it before, so we’ve prepared this article to help you with this part of the process. It is a very important step that can determine the income you will make for months and even years to come, so we want to make sure you start off right.
Do Your Research
There are many different niche markets, and depending on the niche you are in, the pricing of your ads can vary. This is generally due to your competitors setting the average price and your advertisers demanding a price that they are comfortable paying. There is an average pricing model you can start out with, but you will also want to research what your competitors are charging and what those advertisers are paying so that you don’t sell yourself short or price your ad spots so high that no one in your market will buy them. Researching sites like yours can also give you an idea of the types of advertisers that may be attracted to your site.
Plan the Layout of Your Ad Zones
Finding just the right space on your website for your ad zones is crucial to the success of your ad sales now and in the long run. Make sure that you put thought into what types of ad zones you will have on your website, how many ads you will offer in each zone, and where they will be located in your layout. There are certain things that advertisers look for when choosing a website to advertise on, and a nice, clean layout with well-planned ad spots can make your website stand out from the ones that just slap an abundance of ads on their site in a chaotic fashion. Psdtuts+ is a great example of a well-balanced ad layout.
When you are starting to plan the layout of your ads, you should also try to see things from the perspective of a potential advertiser and consider how you would like your ad presented if you were the advertiser – instead of only thinking about how you can make the most money. Of course, you will also want to think of strategic ways in which you can make money and also keep the visitors in mind as well, but it should be a nice balance between how you can make your advertisers and visitors happy while still making the most income as you can from your website real estate. This is something I have kept at the top of my mind as I have been working on a redesign of my website. It is very important to me that I consider ways to make the ad spaces more valuable to advertisers while keeping my visitors satisfied as well. Visitors don’t want to see a chaotic mess of ads, and advertisers don’t either. As long as you keep this in mind while you are thinking of ways to increase your advertising income, it can contribute to your ad-selling success.
Offer Standard Ad Sizes if You Can
The size of your ads can be any size you wish, although it is usually best to offer standard banner sizes. (You can see some of the more popular standard sizes listed in our drop-down menu when you create an ad zone.) This is because many advertisers already have ads created for the standard sizes, and they may be more likey to purchase an ad that they already have ads prepared for.
How Many Ads? Find the Happy Medium
Too many ads on a website can make an advertiser shudder and click away. You’ve more than likely seen the websites I’m referring to. They have ads placed in every corner of their website – so many that you can barely find the content. This might work for some publishers for a little while, but it may not work well in the long run. Websites with too many ads can look ‘spammy’ and cluttered, and it can decrease the value of your ads and hurt your ad sales. Advertisers know that in websites that are too littered with other ads, their ad can get lost, which can mean lower click-through rates for them. The visitors of your website may not like it either, and you certainly don’t want to lose too many of your visitors.
On the other hand, it would be a waste to under-utilize your website real estate. You don’t want to be too apprehensive about having more than one ad on your website either. There is a happy medium, and once you find it, everyone will be happy: you, your advertisers, and your visitors – especially if the ads on your website are services or products that interest them (as they should be).
The Average Pricing Model: Something to Start With
Average-sized ads are usually priced at around $1 for every 2,000 page impressions. This does not mean that you must charge this amount for your ads. You are the owner of your website and can charge whatever you think is right. This is just a good place to start when researching ad prices and trying to find the right price for the ads on your site. The price of each ad is also influenced by the size of the ad, the placement of the ad zone on your site and how many other ads are visible around each ad. You can usually charge more for an ad if it is larger, higher on the page, or if not many other ads are in close proximity. You may also find that there are websites in your niche market that have ads priced higher at $2 or $3 per 2,000 impressions, and if this is the average for an approximate ad size in your niche, you may want to price your similar-sized ads in the same range or just below that range to get the value that you deserve.
Price Accordingly
It is important that you don’t price too high or too low. Pricing too high may not get you any sales (and it’s just not very nice). Pricing too low may get you quick sales, but you will be making less than you should be making – and in some ways you may be labeled an accomplice in bringing down the value of website real estate all over the world. Do you really want to be a part of that movement? ;)
Have Patience
If your ads are priced right, and if you have a decent amount of traffic with an “Advertise Here” callout on your site, you should start receiving ad sales soon. The time it takes to start filling up your ad spots can range anywhere from one week to a few weeks or more. This wait-time can depend on several factors – many of which are out of your control and that have nothing to do with how you priced or placed the ad zones. (Sometimes it’s just the position of the moon – or that many of your potential advertisers happen to be away on an African Safari.) It may be best to wait about 4-6 weeks before trying to make any changes to your ad options. Reducing prices just because you haven’t sold an ad in a few days may not be a good idea. But if there are no ad sales after several weeks, it may be time to do some more research and evaluate your ad prices or the placement or quantity of your ads to see if they may need to be altered. You can also send an email to our Support Department if you would like a second opinion about the pricing and placement of your ads. Our goal is to help you get the most out of your website real estate. We will be happy to help you achieve your goals by offering advice and assisting you in this process.
Avoid Frequent Price Increases for Current Advertisers
If you raise the price of your ads for current advertisers too frequently, you risk frustrating your advertisers and running them off – to possibly never come back to advertise on your site again. Obtaining advertisers is a good goal to have, but retaining advertisers is an important goal as well. If you raise the price of your ads too frequently, you may be sending the message to your current advertisers that making money from them is your only focus, and that you don’t truly care about what is fair for them or that they have been a loyal advertiser. It is important to keep good relationships with your advertisers for current and future ad sales.
If your website is successful and its traffic is increasing, that’s great. But instead of raising the price too frequently as it grows, you may want to work out a price-increase strategy that allows you to evaluate the traffic and consider an increase in price to a fair amount every six or twelve months, depending on your rate of growth. Our system keeps current advertisers at the old price when you raise the price, so a price increase doesn’t even affect your current advertisers unless you contact our Support Department and request that the current advertisers pay the increased price. So you can still raise the price for new advertisers and wait until you think your current advertisers will be willing to pay the increased price before you require them to pay the new rate.
Good Luck!
These are just a few of the things you may want to think about when planning the ad spaces for your website. I hope this is helpful to you as you start selling ads. As always, if you need assistance, please send an email to our Support Department and we will be happy to help. :)
