Is Banner Advertising cost effective?


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by T. L. Helmer

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Is Banner Advertising cost effective?

According to a July study by WebCMO, guess what the most effective advertising strategy is for Web marketers?

Banner ads?
Print ads?
Spam mail?

Any of the above? Nope! The most effective method of generating Web site traffic is "Search Engine Submissions," followed closely by "Solicited or Opt-In Email". And, as any savvy Web marketer knows, submitting alone does nothing to bring you more traffic. You must be positioned in the first one to two pages of results to be found.

The following scale demonstrates how each Web marketer rated the over-all effectiveness of the following methods on a scale of 1 to 5, with 5 being the most effective.

Search Engine Submissions 3.35
Solicited or Opt-In Email 3.34
Offline Advertising 3.04
Press Release 3.00
Banner Advertising 2.85
Discussion Forums 2.83
Sponsorships 2.61
Newsgroups 2.46
Strategic Linking 2.44
Spam 1.8

Search engine positioning along with the major directories is the most cost effective way to promote a Web site. Recent studies prove that banner advertising is becoming less and less effective. On average, banner ads result in click-through rates of less than 1% (NetRatings study, June through December 1998). Since most Web sites are charged between $40 and $60 per one thousand "impressions" (which means they charge you for every time someone sees your banner ad regardless whether or not they click on it and visit your site), you'd be lucky if your $60 of banner ads resulted in six or seven visits for your site!

If you're wanting to increase the visitors to your site, as well as your sales, then email me today. I'll take care of all the details so you don't have to. Let me start launching your pages to the top of the search results!

Nothing is more humiliating than to see idiots succeed in enterprises we have failed in.

Flaubert


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