Selling Advertising Space Part 5: How to Convince Advertisers to Buy Your Space

Welcome to part 5 of this article series! In this post, I will continue on with question 12:

• How do I convince advertisers to buy?

The best ad manager and advertising policies won’t matter much if you can’t convince advertisers to purchase space on your website or blog. This is really what it all comes down to – actually SELLING your space.

Anytime you ask someone to open their wallet, you’re engaging in sales – this means you’ve got to put on your game face and get ready for some resistance. Remember, there are millions of websites out there, each offering advertising space. Why does yours stand out? What makes yours different? Why should someone bother investing in your traffic?

Let’s dive into some of the best ways to convince those potential advertisers to take the plunge and buy!

1. Create a Killer Advertising Page

This is by far the MOST important method to gaining new advertisers. This is a dedicated page on your blog or website set up specifically to discuss your offers and explain the benefits of advertising on your site. You will provide important information for companies here, including your traffic and stats.

Please feel free to check out my own Advertising page for ideas. I created mine after analyzing the way top blogs (like ProBlogger.net, Entrepreneurs-Journey.com and JohnChow.com) created theirs. I will use mine as an example as I dissect each section of it and explain what information should be placed on this page.

Welcome and Background

The first section of your Advertising Page should welcome potential advertisers, thank them for their interest and explain the type of audience your website has. This can help weed out advertisers that have no relation to your website topic or niche.

Latest Statistics

In this section, you will offer up your numbers. Your numbers are what explain the prices you’ve chosen to charge for your space (if your numbers are good, your prices will be high) and help convince advertisers that you in fact have traffic to offer them. Here are some ideas for numbers (stats) you may want to consider posting:

• Unique Visitors
• Page Views
• Average Visitor Length
• % of New Visitors
• Number of Articles/Pages/Blog Posts
• Comments/Pingbacks
• Average Number of Comments Per Post
• RSS Subscribers
• Twitter Followers
• Facebook Fan Pages
• Newsletter Subscribers
• Google PageRank
• Alexa Ranking
• Technorati Authority
• Any Special Rewards Your Blog Has Received

*Not all of these stats are necessary – you choose which you would like to post.

Notice I included numbers not directly related to your blog or website (i.e. Twitter Followers and Newsletter Subscribers)? The reason these are important is it indicates the potential traffic you can bring to your site with a tweet or email. This is important for advertisers to know.

What if your numbers aren’t so hot? Well, perhaps limit the information you share, but trust me – you MUST offer up your unique visitor stat either on this page or in communication with your advertisers. Without this most basic piece of information, you’re not likely to convince anyone to buy your space. If your other numbers aren’t exactly noteworthy at the moment, go ahead and leave them out. However, NEVER lie about your numbers! Remember, your advertisers are paying you based on your stats – if you mislead them, you’re stealing from them.

By the way, your traffic doesn’t say everything about your website. If you target a very specific and tight niche, your traffic might be low, but your audience might be very engaged. That type of website is definitely worthy of advertising sales.

Also, try to keep your stats updated. Monthly or bimonthly updates are sufficient.

Guidelines

Policies, requirements and special requests all go in this section. This is where you can explain any special rules or restrictions you have and confirm exactly how your ad space works. Here’s a list of my guidelines you can use as a reference:

• All advertising prices are in USD.
• Payments are accepted via PayPal.com.
• You will be asked to supply your own banners.
• Animated banners are tolerated, but please keep them reasonable.
• Please keep the size of your image file(s) low.
• I reserve the right to reject ads I deem to be unacceptable for my blog.
• Prices may change at any time.
• Ads are non-refundable unless you contact me within 1 hour of placing your order.
• Every purchased ad sponsorship adheres to Google’s Guidelines and is assigned a No-Follow attribute.

Reports

This is a very short section I added to my advertising page explaining that my sponsors will receive weekly stat reports on their clicks and impressions. This is a great way to entice advertisers as it assures them they will have an idea of how well their ads perform on your site.

Ad Packages

Now it’s time to explain what type of space you offer. In this section, quickly outline the following information:

• Banner or Space Size
• Banner or Space Location
• Number of Total Possible Ads in Rotation
• The Page(s) Space Appears On
• Pricing and Availability – OPTIONAL

Ad Position Grid

This is an extra piece of info you can offer on your advertising page. It’s an image of your entire website with all ad locations highlighted for easy reference. I have one on mine – go take a look at the bottom of the page for an example.

“Start Advertising” Links

Whether you manage your ads through a software like OIOpublisher or simply your contact page, make sure you list a “get started” link throughout your advertising page. I post a link to purchase after every section of content. Don’t make potential advertisers search for that link.

Testimonials

You can take your page one step further and post testimonials from existing advertisers. This is a fantastic way to sell your space! Simply ask your advertisers to tell you if they benefited from their space purchase and request their permission to post their feedback on your website. This really helps potential sponsors feel confident that you’ve provided space before and that your offer is legitimate.

2. Don’t Show More than One Empty Slot

It’s perfectly understandable that in the beginning of your space promotion you will have empty (un-purchased) slots on your website. What’s not understandable is why you would want to present a ton of empty slots to your visitors and potential advertisers.

Empty slots can make your website or blog appear unpopular and even make you look a little needy. If your advertisers find out how many slots you have available later on in the purchase process, well that’s between you and them. But to advertise your empty slots on every page of your blog – that just won’t look good.

Also, empty slots are WASTED SPACE. You could be making money with those slots by inserting affiliate ads or Google banner ads for the time being. Remember, your website is prime real estate – always take advantage of your space!

3. Offer Your Advertisers Stats

It’s really hard to convince someone to buy something without explaining what they will get for their purchase. An advertiser will want to know how well their ads perform on your site. This will help them decide whether or not to purchase from you again.

By offering your advertisers reports on their ad’s click throughs and impressions, you’re assuring potential advertisers that they will know exactly what they got for their purchase.

It’s as simple as this – would you purchase Google Adwords if there was no way you could find out how well your ad performs? How would you know if your investment was worth it? How would you know what you might need to change in your ad copy? How would you be convinced to purchase an ad with Google in the future?

By using an Ad Manager like OIOpublisher, you can offer your advertisers weekly reports on how well their ads perform on your site. This is a big selling point for potential buyers – really consider offering this.

4. Have an Attractive and Organized Website

Yes, beauty is in the eye of the beholder, but the majority of us can agree on what is and is not an attractive or well laid out website. If your site is cluttered with links and graphics and lacks an easy navigation system, you not only will lose visitors – you will lose advertisers.

An advertiser cares about the message being sent out about their company. Your website will be part of that message if they choose to advertise with you.

Make sure your ad space is well laid out and clean. Never try to hide banners that you sell, but rather make sure the space is nicely defined and easily viewable. You don’t need to place ad space in your most prime real estate (such as the first fold of your website), but you do need to be fair to your advertisers by not burring their ads.

Also, ensure that you don’t change the layout and location of your ads until your advertisers’ time has ended. Remember, they’ve invested in a location for a certain amount of time and that location should not change during that time.

5. Run Promotions

Sales work for retail – they also work for ad sales. If you’ve just set up space for the very first time, run a special grand-opening sale to entice advertisers. If your ad sales have slowed down, launch a 2 for 1 deal or half-off sale.

Remember, that space is there whether an advertiser invests in it or not. Try not to be stubborn about the money you make off of it. Better someone pay you $5 for a banner rather than $0, right?

6. Build an Engaged Audience

This tip applies mainly to blog owners. If you allow comments on your blog, make sure your visitors are commenting! Work on increasing the amount of discussion and participation that occurs on your blog and try to build up the number of re-tweets and other “shares” your posts get. All of these elements help show activity on your site – activity that advertisers will be willing to invest in. Try to avoid a “cricket, cricket” feel.

Next: Part 6

In my next post, I will cover the last question:

• How do I get the word out about my advertising space?

How Do You Convince Advertisers to Buy? Have Any of the Above Tips Helped More than Others?

Topic Tags:

make money online, oiopublisher, selling ad space