Thanks to the Internet and automated algorithms, making money on marketing has become available to businesses of all sizes. Before, making money off ads was pretty impossible for small and medium-sized businesses, since back then you needed to afford expensive ad space on central streets, in public transport, have your own radio stations or TV channels.
All these traffic sources required considerable investments, before they would start making money themselves. Now, however, thanks to the Internet, anyone with a website, blog or media portal with a relatively small audience can generate income from ads or sponsored materials.
Let’s take a look at the popular ad formats used on websites.
Contextual ads
Contextual ads are the most popular online marketing type in the form of small ads that are shown in parts of the page without content. Google Adsense is a major contextual ad platform.
There is a specific list of requirements for contextual ads hosting sites, like these:
- the website must not contain prohibited content or mislead visitors;
- the resource must not contain viruses and malware;
- you can’t artificially stimulate and increase the number of impressions.
It’s best to check out the entire list of requirements since should you violate them your domain is bound to get blocked with no possibility of recovery.
You also need to have at least 500 unique visitors per day. If your resource meets these requirements, ads will be displayed on it after you register.
The algorithms of ad networks and specialized services will pick out the most relevant ads for a specific audience on their own. That’s why such ad placements are most effective on websites dedicated to a more narrow topic. When working with large ad platforms, you don’t run the risk of illegal or “gray area” offers being promoted on your website. The most common payment models are either CPM (per 1,000 views) or CPC (per click).
Banners and teaser ads
The second most popular ad format among publishers — banner ads. These are small static or video ads with a small amount of text on them. Such ads convert the audience well on websites with lots of traffic. When displayed, banners are also tailored to the arriving audience, just like contextual ads, but manage to reach a wider audience.
Like contextual ads, here you also need to register with a banner network to offer them ad space on your website. It’s often the case that there’s nothing to the left and right of the actual content, meaning that space can be used to display ad materials. Banners are popular thanks to their ability to organically fit into the website, without distracting the user from the regular content. Payment for placing banner ads can be per 1,000 impressions or per click.
Teasers are ads that look like banners, but just contain more text that includes hooking headlines. Networks that work with banner ads usually also deal with teasers. All the aspects of working with them are similar, but narrowly thematic sites are more suitable for teasers, for example, one dedicated to female and male beauty, health, sports, and so on.
Native ads and partner content
Recently, the online marketing world was forced to face a new phenomenon – banner blindness. This is when people are so used to ads, they don’t react to them at all. This forces some advertisers to opt for softer marketing campaigns that focus on native ads.
Native ads fit the website’s design perfectly and mimic other cards and buttons, thereby not annoying the user.
Since users are becoming more demanding, the placement of partner materials on websites is becoming more popular. This usually is useful content: an article or a video that mentions the partner and contains a link to their site or the product page. The company sponsors such product placement. Such ads are often used on news and informational websites.
Promotional website design
Only websites with large traffic volumes can afford this ad format. Publishers usually negotiate directly with advertisers regarding the promo materials that will be displayed. Most often, they are placed in the site header and at the edges, while the website is painted in corporate colors. If desired, icons, buttons, an advertiser-style cursor can also be added.
Promotional website design is an expensive type of ad campaign that works to increase brand coverage and awareness. Categories that are usually promoted this way are, for example, popular clothing and makeup brands, sports events, new games and films and bookmaker offices.
Advertising placement and design
The most popular places to display ads are website headers, above or below the main menu. Since the upper part is the first thing the visitor sees, such places are the most expensive. Sometimes such spaces house multiple ads simultaneously, they just automatically rotate.
The website’s side panels, which are usually empty, are used for banners and teasers. Usually, all places on the website, without exception, are used for promo design purposes, to create the effect of visitor engagement and not have them get distracted by other ads.
It’s important to keep in mind that your ads mustn’t be too annoying and distract the user from the page’s actual content. The ads must also organically blend into the website’s design. Poorly prepared ad materials may only discourage the user from clicking or even create an unpleasant impression of the product.
This article was written in partnership with Galaksion.
