An Overview of Ad Formats & Placements
Initially I'd like to touch on the different types of ads, some guidelines about incorporating them into a web site to get the best response, and how you can test and optimize ads to make more money. Gen- erally speaking you'll be dealing with 2 types of advertisements - text ads and graphical or image ads.
A basic text ad will say something like "Need new shoes? Zappos has the widest selection and the best prices!" With a text ad, usually the website or product name will be a clickable link that the user can click on for more info.
Sometimes a feature or benefit of what the ad is promoting will be linked instead. For example: "Need to drop a few pounds before you hit the beach this summer? Lose weight fast with this new Acai berry drink!"
A graphical or image ad is, well, some type of graphical advertisement that I'm sure you've seen at least 4 million times while surfing the web (including numerous samples on this website). Image ads come in all shapes and sizes, and they are ideally designed in a way that gets the user's attention and makes them want to click on the ad to get more info about the product or service being promoted.
A general rule of thumb is that text ads are "better" than image ads, and you should try to use text ads whenever you can. You may even wish to use both a text ad AND an image ad on your site. With our free analytical tools you’ll be able to test which option generates the most profit for your website.
In some situations an image ad can outperform a text ad though, so that's why testing is so important. We'll talk about that a bit later...
So generally speaking, text ads will usually outperform image ads on MOST sites and for MOST offers. The reason for this is that - except in the case of a very unique or creative image ad - when web surfers see image ads they know that they are ads. Many users have even developed what people in the online advertising business call "banner blindness", and they subconsciously ignore image ads when they see them. (A "banner ad" is just another name for a graphical advertisement online).
On the other hand, text ads can often be "disguised" or written in a way that they don't look like ads - so people are more likely to click on them. They can even be woven in to a product "review" which often works really well too.
Text ads also give you a lot more flexibility because they only take seconds to create. You should also work to come up with a text ad that "speaks" to your web site visitors in the best way possible - whereas creating “custom” image ads involves a bit more work.
So let's talk about some of the best ways to incorporate ads into a web site...
Many folks already have experience with online advertising, and often know the best way to incorporate ads into their site. In this case they may just need the tracking link and perhaps a banner or two. After all, they know their website best - and if they have any experience with advertising at all they will know how to best incorporate the new ad into their site, or at least have a pretty good idea of where to start.
We could offer some recommendations, but ultimately how you incorporate the ads into your site is obviously up to you. With that being said, here are some suggestions for ad placements that will generally work well for just about any site...
- A rectangular banner ad somewhere along the top of the site.
- A square or rectangular banner ad integrated into an existing column down the right-hand side of a site.
- A text ad or link within the primary navigation menu for the web site.
- A high-visibility link to a separate "review" or pre-sell page that promotes the offer.
- Any other text or image ad near the top of the site ("above the fold")
- And don't forget your newsletters!
How You Get Paid (One of my favorite subjects…)
A conversion is the desired outcome that generates your commissions. Depending on the type of offer it might be the act of purchasing a product, signing up for a free trial, or the user simply entering their name and email address into a form to get more information on a product or service.
Now it's normally pretty obvious when viewing an offer what needs to happen for a conversion to occur. The offer descriptions in TB Track will also usually spell out what constitutes a conversion for that offer. But as a general rule of thumb, here's what generates a conversion based on the type of offer:
- If the site is selling something, a conversion occurs when a user places an order.
- If the site offers a free trial, 7-day trial, etc. a conversion occurs when a user accepts the trial offer.
- If it's a download/toolbar offer, a conversion occurs when a user downloads the game/toolbar/etc.
- If it's a mobile/cell phone offer, a conversion occurs when the user confirms the PIN on their phone.
- If it's anything else, a conversion occurs when the user submits their info or fills out a form.
Again, the offer descriptions in TB Track will normally outline what has to happen for a conversion to take place, but if you just remember the above guidelines you'll know 99% of the time without even having to look.
About TB Track Payouts and Commissions:
Most of the offers you'll find in the TB Track system are CPA (Cost Per Action) offers. This means the advertiser behind the offer pays a specified amount each time a specific action is taken by the end-user.
CPA offers usually only require the end-user to fill out a form to request more information on a product or service, or sign-up for a low-cost "trial", and we've found these offers work the best overall. Because the end-user doesn't have to actually buy anything, or at most they just need to pay a $5 or $10 shipping fee for a "free trial", These types of offers get the highest conversion rates which means you can start seeing some success and making money fast.
Don't overlook "short form" or simple "email submit" offers that only pay a few dollars per lead. Because these types of offers only require the end-user to enter minimal information such as their name and/or email address, conversion rates can be as high as 50% and commissions from these types of offers can add up FAST.
Other examples of great low paying offers that you shouldn't overlook are various browser "toolbar" or game download offers (if applicable to your traffic demographic).They usually only pay between $1.50 to $2.00 per action, but they are incredibly popular with users.
Obviously we can't promise any specific results but there are potential web sites out there that can generate 100s and even 1000s of these types of leads per day for a single offer. Some have been known to generate over $5,000 per day for extended periods of time promoting these types of offers!
Commissions and payouts:
The standard TB Track commission payout terms are "Net 15". That means you will be paid on the 15th of each month, for the prior month's commissions via either check or PayPal (whichever is preferred). Under certain circumstances, such as generating a large volume of commissions, and depending on the offer(s) being promoted, they can sometimes payout more quickly.
For example if you are generating a ton of leads we can often pay on a weekly basis. This is currently handled on a case-by-case basis and there are no hard and fast rules, but once you're up and running and generating a good amount of business feel free to inquire about it.
The Most Profitable & Stable Niches & Offers
There are literally 1,000s of different CPA offers out there - but TB Track has been doing this "stuff" for a long time so trust us when we say that you really want to focus on just a handful of different types of offers. Here are the niches and types of offers that are the highest performers, in no particular order. These are also, not surprisingly, the primary types of offers you'll find available to promote via the TB Track Network:
There are two primary reasons why these types of offers are so popular:
The first is that these are all HUGE markets. There are 100s of millions of Internet users that are interested in these types of offers, and the opportunity in any ONE of these markets is mind-blowing.
The second reason is because there are a lot of CPA offers to promote within these markets, with
new ones popping up every day.
By sticking with the most popular niches you'll always have multiple offers available for your web site traffic, even when one particular offer is no longer available for one reason or another. The over-whelming majority of the longest-running and most profitable CPA offers are in the markets listed above.
I highly recommend that you start out by just picking one or two of these markets and focusing on
it for awhile. Again, the trick is to choose something appealing to the traffic demographic your site generates.
Split-Testing & Ad Optimization (a slightly more advanced topic...):
We don't advise most folks to rush into this right away, depending on their experience. Initially you should get set-up and integrate at least one text link and/or image ad in whatever way you are comfortable with (hopefully one of the "ideal" placements discussed earlier).
If you have experience with online advertising or are already running ads on your site, you might want to get into testing and optimization a bit sooner, but otherwise you really don't want to be overwhelmed at first until you’ve generated some traffic to the recommended offer.
If you started with a simple text link, you can try some different "anchor text". Changing a text link is just a matter of changing the words in between the HTML codes and it only takes a few seconds.
If you started with a banner ad, try a different one. In either case, you can also experiment with moving the ad(s) to different locations to see if one location gets more clicks than another, and so on.
The key to "split testing" is being able to easily tell which ad does the best, otherwise it's all for nothing. Split testing works best on similar types of ads, eg, you wouldn't split test a text ad against
a banner ad: It's typically text ad VS text ad or banner VS (similar sized) banners.
You can do this by adding the "source" variable to the end of your TB Track referral link. This is crucial - any time a different ad or placement is tested you should use a unique source in the URL.
Here's an example. Say the default tracking link for a particular offer looks like this in TB Track:
http://link.tbtrack.com/aff_c?offer_id=X&aff_id=XXXXX
When testing multiple creatives, basically you just add the "source" to the end of the default URL like this:
http://link.tbtrack.com/aff_c?offer_id=X&aff_id=XXXXX&source=banner1
http://link.tbtrack.com/aff_c?offer_id=X&aff_id=XXXXX&source=banner2
http://link.tbtrack.com/aff_c?offer_id=X&aff_id=XXXXX&source=banner3
etc.
What this does is allow you to run reports in the TB Track system based on the "source", so you'll be able to see exactly how many clicks, conversions, and how much revenue was generated by each ad.
Another way for you to split test different ads is to sign up at an online traffic exchange. One of the largest ones that we recommend is Trafficswarm.com. Through this service, you can test ads at Trafficswarm as well as other exchanges in order to provide quick, measurable results.
Whichever ad is currently doing the best is called the "control ad" - and the goal is simply to try to beat the control. If you test a new ad that beats the control, then this ad would become the new "control ad" which you would then try to beat with the next test.
If you want to do a basic test using multiple similar creatives rotated in the same position of a page - for example text links or multiple banners of the same size - you can also use the "Ad Manager" functionality that's built in to TB Track.
TB Track also allows you to upload your own custom creatives. This functionality probably isn't something you'll be using right away (unless you're a graphic designer), but it's there if and when you need it.
The key to optimizing your campaigns, and increasing your profits, is testing - and I've seen one banner generate two and even three times the results of another banner so it's definitely something
to consider.
While most advertisers provide us with banners that we in turn provide to you, they are usually designed to be "generic" enough to be used across a wide range of different types of sites.
The banners provided by the advertisers are always great to start with, but they may not always generate the absolute best results for any particular client depending on their website, the type of traffic they receive, and so on. In certain cases, custom banners could be considered.
Whether you just test simple text links, the banners made available to you in TB Track, and/or you test custom banners that we have designed with your help - just test, test, test and then test some more.
By constantly split-testing new ads and/or ad placements, you will make a LOT more money. And that's the name of the game: maximizing your web site profits!
Beyond the Obvious - Thinking "Outside the Box":
The more you think "outside the box" and do things differently from other people the better off you'll be. Matching up your website(s) and offers doesn't always have to be so straightforward and "logical".
I'll give you an example...
Consider a car blog, discussion forum, or any other type of car related site. What kinds of people are most likely to be visiting these types of sites, and what else do you think they might be interested in besides just cars?
Isn't it logical to assume that they might also be interested in an auto loan refinancing offer, or perhaps an auto insurance quote to see if they can lower their car insurance? I can also tell you that the overwhelming majority of visitors to car related sites are guys.
So start thinking about what else guys might be interested in. What about "6 pack abs" or other fitness related offers, online dating, a Maxim magazine subscription, etc.?
This is what I mean by "thinking outside the box." The idea is to consider what the average user of a specific website might be like - age, sex, hobbies, interests, etc. - and then figure out what else they might be interested in.
There are even sites that can help you with this type of thing. For example, Alexa and Quantcast will both provide demographic information on the users of a particular web site that can help you to do some brainstorming
Try going to Quantcast and entering your domain name. It will give you a lot of useful information about your website's visitors including the male/female ratio, average ages, ethnicities, income levels, level of education, and it will even give you a list of other sites that they are most likely to visit. This demographic info is worth its weight in gold!
And Finally, Dealing with the Occasional Offer Problem & Downtime
Unfortunately, from time to time, an offer you're promoting might have problems and stop working properly. It doesn't happen too often, but occasionally it does - it's just the nature of the business. So
I want to talk briefly about how to deal with this so you're not caught off guard if it happens to you.
99% of the time it's some kind of problem/glitch on the advertiser's end of things. Problems are usually caused by one of the following ...
1. The advertiser's server is having network connectivity problems. Generally this will cause their web pages to load slowly or erratically, or you might not be able to connect to their web site at all.
2. Human error. Programmers and "techies" are human and they screw up once in a while. When they do it may not affect the site at all, it could cause minor problems with the site, or it could cause the offer to not work properly at all.
3. The advertiser has shut down the offer without any advance notice. This is rare but advertisers will occasionally do this if they run into serious financial or technical problems.
The good news is that more often than not, offer issues are very temporary in nature. Network problems or outages usually don't last more than an hour or two, and problems caused by human error are usually discovered and fixed pretty quickly as well.
If an offer doesn't seem to be working properly, the first thing to do is simply give it some time and try again later. Give it at least a few hours. Chances are that they are aware of the problem and working to fix it as quickly as they can.
Remember, when an offer is down the advertiser is losing more money than anyone - so they have every incentive in the world to get their offer up and running properly as quickly as possible.
Also keep in mind that oftentimes what you think is a problem with an offer isn't really a problem at all. It could be YOUR Internet service provider that's having a problem connecting you to the advertiser's server...or maybe you're trying to view an offer that's not available in your area and that's why it's not working as expected.
If it has been a while and an offer still isn't working properly, go ahead let us know just to make sure that WE are aware of it. We'll try to look into the problem as quickly as we can: We'll alert the advertiser to the problem if necessary, and we'll respond back to you once we have a status update from the advertiser.
No matter what, please keep in mind that we do not run or control any of the offers found in TB Track, so there's very little that we can actually do to get offer problems resolved. Again, they are typically aware of the problem and trying to get it fixed as soon as possible. Usually, by the time we get to respond to our clients it'll already be working again.
If for any reason an offer is "down" for an extended period of time, you may want to consider switching to a different offer at least temporarily until the problem is resolved. You’ll notice that we have plenty of relevant offers in your “back office” and it’s quick and easy to do.
Hopefully this information has been helpful to you, or at least a decent review.
Take care, and God bless!
