How to market a Site Online

As opposed to traditional marketing, where significant barriers to entry exist to introduce a new means in the row (for example, restrictions and legislation to own a television signal or high costs to print a new local newspaper), in the online world, any person with good ideas can easily become an editor, journalist, product, developer and create their own style.

The site may be quickly visited and awaken the interest of Internet users. That's the way traffic starts on your site and becomes a new online 'medium'. This site or online medium is also called a 'Publisher'. Any Publisher, independent of the traffic volume, can receive advertisers interested in promoting services and products as to generate revenues derived from ad sales.
 
How to market an online site

The first step to start selling ads is to define:
 
•    WHAT TO SELL >> PRODUCTS

•    HOW TO SELL >> SALES MODELS

•    PRICE TO SELL >> PRICES
 
All this information will confirm the Publisher's 'Pricing Policy' or 'Media Kit' and will be a permanent and easy to reach consulting document for agencies, networks and advertisers. Along with prices, you may include a document or presentation with the site traffic and technical specifications of available formats.
 
 

WHAT TO SELL >> PRODUCTS

You can choose from the following range of products:
 
Text or Text + Image Ads
These ads have a text type format  (generally a title, description and url) and may include an image. Generally, these type of ads are associated with 'searching terms'. As it is in the case of Google, sites' contents or they are assigned to spaces called 'stores' which contain windows of products.
 

 
Display Ads
Graphic ads can be either static or animated. Generally the Advertiser prefers Flash, .JPG or .GIF file formats as they represent their brand with higher impact ads.

 

 
Rich Media Ads
Enriched ads foster interactivity between the ad and the user. They include effects, such as extension, displacement, appearance and disappearance, changes in the site layout; incorporation of video, catalogs, maps, forms, galleries and social buttons, such as Twitter and Facebook.  Visit AdMagic Gallery

 
Mobile Ads
Image and HTML5 ads designed for mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. They maximize the advantages of the mobile world by utilizing touch browsing and functionalities like click to call (upon clicking an ad a call is made) or click to SMS (upon clicking an ad an SMS is sent).    Visit ASM (Ad Studio Mobile)

 
InStream Ads
If the Publisher has video content, these ads appear as a commercial or commercial break (bPre, Mid or Post video) or they go with the video as an overlapped logo or epigraph in the screen.  Visit AdMagic InStream Gallery

HOW TO SELL >> SALES MODELS

The present online sales models are:
 
SPONSOR OR FIXED PRESENCE
A Sponsored space is sold to an Advertiser for a definite period of time at a fixed price. For example: Advertiser A pays $1,000 for the top space in the site homepage and it appears therein published during a month. This is the model small Publishers use the most, especially before hiring an ad server. Generally, editors start their monetization by including fixed advertisers on a monthly basis or longer. However, this way of monetization is not the most profitable one.  As it is a fixed pay, traffic fluctuations are not considered. Thus the Advertiser may receive double the traffic at the same price.

This option is only recommendable in the following cases:

•    For sites lacking peaks or sustained traffic growth.
•    To incorporate Branding special packages, such as 'Homepage Fixed Presence' for a day. For example, for a product launching campaign.
•    For sites wishing to become associated to television sale models, with fixed presences per hours.  In these cases, it is recommended to clearly differentiate the prices in hours where the traffic is higher, 'Prime Time'.
 
CPM (Cost Per Thousand Impressions)
A number of impressions (the times the ad is viewed on a site) is sold. For example, Advertiser B pays $10 every 1,000 impressions or times his ad is loaded on the site. It is important to clarify that an impression the ad will load on the site, it does not necessarily mean the ad will be seen by the user. The number of impressions  is  associated to user impacts, it does not represent a number of users or reach. The same user may visit a site on a frequent basis (10 times a day) and be impacted plenty of times by the same ad. In this case there are 10 impressions to the single user.

This option is recommended:

•    To market formats/campaigns oriented to branding and brand reminding.
•    To market Rich Media and Instream ads.
•    For sites with growing and fluctuating traffic throughout the day and/or differences marked among days in the week.
 
CPC (Cost Per Click)
The Advertiser must pay for each click on the ad. In this case, the number of ad  impressions is not important, but only the times a user clicks on the ad.  This model implies a greater risk for the Publisher, as the Advertiser will be promoted in the site but he will only pay if users click on the ad.  In an extreme case when the campaign ends without any click, the Advertiser would not pay anything to the Publisher.

This option is recommended to:

•    Market formats/campaigns oriented to generate visits to the Advertiser's site.
•    Market text or text and image ads and never Reach Media formats.
•    For sites with a lot of traffic (generally hundreds of impressions are needed to generate a click).
•    For campaigns with a clear 'call to action', which means, an attractive message inviting to make a click and/or if there exists an incentive (raffles, benefits, prizes, etc.)
 
CPA (Cost Per Acquisition)
This model refers to a specific acquisition or action within a site. An acquisition or conversion may be a complete registration, a subscription, a download or a sale). The value may be a fixed price per action, or in the case of sales, a percentage regarding the value of each generated sale.  This model implies an even greater risk for the Publisher, as the Advertiser will be promoted in the site, there will be clicks on the ads, but he will only pay if users complete a definite action or purchase.

This option is recommended:

•    For performance advertisers, as e-commerce sites implementing policies of aggressive promotions, such as 'discounts, offers at the very last minute, opportunities'.
•    To market text or text and image ads and never Reach Media.
•    For sites with a lot of unsold traffic.

PRICE TO SELL >> PRICES
 
Once products and sales models are defined, prices follow. The prices vary depending on contents or quality of the site and the geographic market where the site operates. It is recommended to check the prices of other media as a reference.

Some recommendations to be taken into account:

•    To respect the commission schedules of agencies in force in the market.
•    To always keep the gap and differentiation among premium products (Rich Media, Instream), standard products (Display, Mobile) and performance products (texts).
•    To consider adserver segmentation options  (contextual, geographic, technological) and behavioral targeting segmentation as options to increase the value of products and prices.
•    To consider user frequency caps (maximum number of impressions per user) to ensure the scope of campaigns in terms of audience and avoid saturation; being able to apply an overprice.