5 Questions to Consider Before You Advertise on a Website

There are few, if any, businesses who can get by without some form of advertising being used. It is why you still see established businesses putting ads on TV or on websites all across the internet. While you may not have the budget to take to the airwaves, you can use website advertising to create some buzz and generate sales. This will only happen, though, if you take time to choose where you spend your money wisely, which can be done by following these 5 simple tips:

• Reach your target market – When choosing a website to advertise on, you need to make sure that the people that visit that site are the group of people that you are trying to target. For example, if your business is dedicated to gaming and consoles, you are not likely to see much joy if you place ads on a site for seniors. Talk to the owner of the website you want to advertise on and ask about the demographics of his site visitors.
• Compatible site content – Ideally, the website that you are looking to advertise on should have content that is compatible with your business. If we stick with the notion that you have a business dedicated to all things gaming, then you might look for a site that does reviews of the newest games to be released.
• Type of ad server used – More and more websites are turning to ad servers to supply the advertisements for their sites. You need to ask the owner of the site about the ad server they use, as the speed, reporting capabilities, targeting options, and more will have an effect on the results that you will see from advertising on that space.
• Pricing – It really does pay to shop around and ask questions when you are looking at purchasing advertising. You may find that one owner is willing to offer a discount or a reduced rate on your ad, where others are not. You may even be able to offer up an exclusive ad deal that would benefit you both, but just make sure that the way in which you do that will not have too negative an effect on your potential ROI.
• Ad formats offered – There is a good possibility that you have found one specific type of advertising format that works better for you than others. Perhaps ad banners of a certain size that draw the biggest crowd, or maybe you have found that text links are what get the biggest response. Whatever the case, you need to check with the website owner to make sure that they will be able to place your ads in the format that you wish.

If you can follow the 5 tips outlined above, there is a very good chance that your website advertising efforts will reap some very nice rewards. Failure to follow these tips could see your advertising budget getting gobbled up with no return on your investment.