Integrating Advertising into Your Web Design
If you are going to be placing ads on your website, you'll want to put some thought into how you'll integrate them. Poor integration of ads into your website will cause visitors to click away fast. Successful integration of ads into your site can be highly profitable. Before I show you where to position ads, I want to mention a few important points about ads.
1. Ratio of ads to content
How many ads should you place on your website? There is an optimum ratio of ads to content. If your website has too high a proportion of advertising relative to content, the traffic on your website will suffer and you will lose money. If your website has too low a portion of advertising relative to content, the sales on your website will suffer and you will lose money.
What is the optimum ratio of ads to content? I can't point to any studies, but I feel the optimum ratio is somewhere around 20 to 25 percent ads relative to content. Go much above that ratio and, despite more ads, the revenue from your site goes down. But, there are ways to exceed that ratio and still make more money.
Ads as a service
Advertisements can provide useful information, as well as content. In that case, the ads become content. Here's an example. Rather than post ads that pay you the highest commission, post ads that provide the best value to the visitors to your website. These are ads where the value is so good you might respond to the ad yourself. This type of ad is more of a service than an advertisement.
Another example is ads for gifts around the holidays. People expect and are not turned off by an increase in ads around the holidays. Finding gifts for everyone on your list is difficult work, and people appreciate gift ideas. Again, this type of ad is more of a service than an advertisement.
You can safely exceed the normal ratio of ads to content if you hide the ads in the content. An example of this is product "reviews". For example, computer magazines are almost 100 percent advertising posing as product reviews.
2. Repetition of ads and ad management
I have seen websites that display the exact same banner on every page. If I didn't respond to the banner on the first page, what makes them think I will repond to it on the second, third ... hundredth page?
Displaying the same banner on every page of your website is annoying to your website's visitors, and a money losing propostion for you. Keep your ads fresh. Ads are boring enough without repeating the same ad over and over. Display a variety of ads, and use an ad management system. An example of an ad management system is a banner rotator.
3. Ad type relative to response rate
I have heard claims that text ads receive the highest reponse. I'm sure these results are not related to whether the ad is text or graphics, but more likely related to the fact that text ads are usually placed in the more responsive areas of a webpage. All thing being equal, a graphic ad will always get better response than a text ad.
A graphic ad will get higher response than a text ad, and an animated graphic ad will get higher response than a static graphic ad. But animation can be taken to an extreme. Some types of animation are annoying and not only does the ad get a low response, but it also causes visitors to click away from your website.
Examples of annoying animated ads are banners that flash or jiggle or do something else that distracts the visitor so they can't read the webpage content. Those visitors that don't click away will scroll the webpage so this type of ad goes off screen while they try to read the webpage.
A secret few advertising designers know is that the graphic that will get the most attention is a picture of a human face. People are genetically predisposed to look at a human face in their view area. Try it yourself while you're browsing the web. If a webpage has a human face on it, that's the first thing you will look at.
Where to position ads on your webpage
To discuss where to place ads on a webpage, we need to divide a page into five sections as listed below.
Note: There is a sixth area of the webpage which is the popup window. There are many forms of popup windows; pop-over, pop-under, delayed, and exit. The polite way to use popup windows is the self-closing popup window. Because of popup window blockers, popup windows are much less effective today, and, from my own experience, when I tried using popup windows, the page views on my website dropped by 50 percent.
The most common position to place advertising banners is in the header section of a webpage. Web users have programmed themselves to ignore banners in this position. The response rate of banners in the header section of webpages has dropped to something like .0001 percent. The Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) has tried to overcome this problem by defining giant (what I call "battleship size") banners. I don't know of any studies that show this works.
Using banners in the head section of your webpage is a waste of processor time, but most webpages still use them. Making a sale this way is a long shot. Banners in the footer section of a webpage are even less responsive.
Actually Web users have programmed themselves to ignore all advertising on the web. However, from my own experience, you can get some response from ads in the left and right margins of a webpage. Most websites are designed with the menu in the left margin and possibly ads in the right margin. This means if the user has a low resolution display, depending upon the width of the webpage, the advertising may be off the screen.
Place your menu in the right margin and use the left margin for advertising. This places the user with a low resolution display in the positon of having to scroll to view the menu. Too bad. They should get a bigger display. Website revenue comes first.
The most responsive position to put your ads is in the center column of the webpage along with the content. As visitors are reading the article on the webpage, they come upon the ad. It's unavoidable.
If you imagine the center column of your webpage divided into three parts; top, middle, and bottom, the most responsive position for your ad will be right in the middle. As the visitors are reading the article on the webpage, they are forced to look at the ad as they continue to the lower part of the article. This might be a little annoying to the reader, but let's hope your content is worth that slight annoyance.
I would recommend placing your ad at the bottom of the center column. As visitors read the article on the webpage, they end up looking at your ad. This is almost as effective as placing the ad in the middle of the column, and a lot less annoying to the reader.
As you can see, how you integrate advertising into your webpages has a major impact on your ability to produce revenue from your website. Poor ad integration will cause visitors to click away. Proper integration can make your website highly profitable. But, ad positon is not the only determining factor, don't forget the ratio of ads to content, ad management, and ad type relative to response rate.
Copyright(C) 2004 Bucaro TecHelp.
Permission is granted for the below article to forward, reprint, distribute, use for ezine, newsletter, website, offer as free bonus or part of a product for sale as long as no changes are made and the byline, copyright, and the resource box below is included.
About The Author
Stephen Bucaro
To learn how to maintain your computer and use it more effectively to design a Web site and make money on the Web visit bucarotechelp.com. To subscribe to Bucaro TecHelp Newsletter visit http://bucarotechelp.com/search/000800.asp
Related Articles:
Fast Professional Custom Web Design, Web Templates And Makeovers From $80
Giving your site the professional look and feel of a top 10000 website design in 2008, is not the daunting, time sapping, bank balance emptying task it once was with 6oofthebest.com
Web Design And The Psychology Of Colors
Web design is not an easy task, especially if what you need is to create a business website in plain HTML, with a very simple layout, easy to navigate, fast loading and, above all, distinctive. To reach this purpose web designers don?t have too many options. Typically all they can do is blend colors harmoniously to create an appealing website that combines attributes of simplicity and logic while providing valuable content.
Your Goals In Web Design - Is The Key Looks Or Usability... Or Both?
If you are in the process of drawing up plans for the design and development of your business website, or even for a personal website, you may be wondering whether or not the goal in regard to website design and development should be looks or usability. In many ways, this has been the great debate when it has come to website design and development: Looks versus design.
Austin Web Design Firm Adds Cyber-Elegance to Ballet Austin's Online Home
Austin-based Site Goals, a web design and development firm, shows of its non-profit pizazz with Ballet Austin's sleek and effective new site.
Tips For Working With A Web Design Agency
When a web design agency gets a job from a client that they have never dealt with before, they go through a very specific process in order to fully satisfy the client. If you are thinking about starting a web design agency and you want to offer your services, your main focus will be on gaining a solid reputation and maintaining it. So, follow the steps that hundreds of agencies have followed in the past in order to provide your clients with exactly what they expect and need.
Web Design Firm to Donate Complete Website to One Deserving Non-profit Organization
Central Mass Web Design to kick off Website giveaway contest.
Which Web Design Company - Search, Find, Review and Rate Web Design Companies at WWDC
Let's face it, choosing a web design company is a pretty tough job when you are not really sure what to look for in a company. Do you go for the best price? The company who is based closest to you? A friend who designs sites as a hobby? Or one that was recommended by the company next door?
To date, the industry has mostly worked through referrals, Which Web Design Company has taken this very concept to the Web.
50 Surefire Web Design Tips
Tips to brand your websiteInclude your logo in all pages. Position it at the top left or each page.
Web Design Companies - How To Choose The Right One For Your Business
Your website is your company's calling card on the internet so you need to have one you're proud of and does the job it's meant to, and offer pleasant viewing for your browsers which can only be achieved with quality web development. That means getting a professional web development company to develop your site and create web based solutions for your business. But before approaching a web design company, you should clarify your requirements. Here's how you do it.
Effective Web Design Usability Principles
Website Design Usability Tips1. Getting to know about audience membersYou want a site that has personality and quality content based on your audience taste.
Jaymunda Web Design Announces New Business Partnership and Office in Marietta, Georgia
Jaymunda Web Design, currently located in Asheville, North Carolina, has opened a new office in Marietta, Georgia. The new office will facilitate an emerging business collaboration between Jaymunda and Referrals4Life, LLC.
Big Business Web Design Disasters
When you think of the world's most successful businesses, what names come to mind? Most likely, consumer-oriented giants such as Coca-Cola, McDonald's, Sheraton, Disney, IBM, and General Electric. Not only have they spent billions on advertising to buy their way into your head. They offer convenient products and services that have made them a part of your life.
Bad Web Design: ActiveX
ActiveX uses an interesting method for enforcing security ..
Web design re-design or new site
Web design describes the process of planning, modelling and the execution of elements such as text, images and forms, which are placed on your website using HTML/XML tags.
SEO Web Design: How To Use SEO Book Information
SEO web design is essential for high search engine listings, and the right choice of SEO book can be use to achieve that. There are many SEO books on offer online, but most seem too much alike and appear to provide the same information. The best type of SEO book is one that provides graphic examples of how successful sites have become successful through effective SEO web design.