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If you're new to promoting your website through banner ads, you probably have some questions. These are the ones people usually ask first.

How does banner advertising work?

We display your banner ad on our site where it can be seen by our site's visitors. If someone is interested in your product or service, they click on the banner and are transferred automatically to your site where you can tell them more, and hopefully, get them to make a purchase. We sell you advertising space on our site on the basis of how many times your banner is seen, a measurement called CPM.

CPM refers to "cost per thousand" and is used by the advertising industry to describe how many people have viewed the banner ad ("page views" they call it), or received an "impression" by seeing the ad.

What does "click-through" mean?

When someone is interested in your banner ad, they click on it, and are transported to your website. Every time someone clicks on your banner, it is called a "click-through," and the "click-through rate" is expressed either in per cent or clicks per thousand.

How do you decide where my banner shows up?

Our lower rate is for "run of site" (ROS), which means that your banner appears randomly throughout the site throughout the month. Our banner-serving software allows us to evenly spread your banner ad "deliveries" throughout the month, and mix them with banners from our other advertisers.

How can I find out how well my banner is working?

We keep track of the times your banner was viewed, the number of click-throughs, and the click through rate, and make them available to you "real-time" on our site anytime during the month, using an account name and a password.

What kind of click-through rate should I expect?

Ours is a fairly targeted site, attracting people who are interested in pets or animals in general. You can expect a 1% to 2% click-through rate, or higher if your banner is very compelling. It all depends on your banner's message and catchiness. We often see banners that run at 3% and sometimes even higher.

How can I get a higher click-through rate?

We also allow advertisers to "own" a position on one of our Web pages where their banner shows exclusively. Let's say you manufacture dog food, and you secure exclusive rights to the top banner on our main dogs page (or all of our dogs pages). If your product is a strong match with the topic of the page. You should get an even better click-through rate.

Why are some CPM rates higher than others?

Typical rates range from $5 CPM to $100 CPM for educational sites with similar audiences. The more targeted the site, the better match between the visitors and the advertiser's product, the higher the rate. Not only is the click-through rate likely to be higher, but also the percentage of sales you make is likely to be higher.

How much will this cost per customer?

Perhaps a better question is How much does it cost me to get customers? Every business tries to calculate how much it costs them in advertising to get a customer to walk through the door. After a while in business, they can also estimate the average sales per customer who walks in the door.

Here's one way to look at the actual costs per customer.

Do you have any minimums?

Yes, our minimum monthly "run of site" is 5,000 page views, or $50. If you plan to purchase 50% or more of the available page views on any section of our site, we will probably require a contract with a two month minimum, and a 30-day notice. This protects us from having a major part of our advertising income disappear without a chance to fill it up again.

What size banner can I use?

We use the standard size: 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high. We allow the file size of the banner to be no more than 12K, so keep your animations "tight".

Can I advertise my porno site or my off-shore gambling site?

No.

Can I advertise my cookbook on your site?

Yes, but why would you want to? Our site is fairly well targeted on pet and animal people, students looking for report information, and those who want want information on pet and animal products they intend to purchase. Because we're targeted, we charge (and can get) much higher CPM rates. The industry average, however, is $35 CPM, and you can find many less targeted sites for $5 to $20 CPM. For cookbooks, I'd recommend something else. But if you insist, we can advertise your cookbook for you -- if you promise to FedEx us samples of your fudge :-)

Do you cooperate with ad agencies and media buyers?

Yes. Of course, the word "cooperate" really means: Will you allow an ad agency to pay 15% less for bringing their client to you? We like to work with ad agencies, since once they learn about our site, they may bring other customers. We also recommend that you consider working through an ad agency, since you have nothing to lose (it's our 15%, not yours). Of course, if you have a small budget, an ad agency probably won't be able to serve your needs, but we'll be happy to work with you.

Can you serve banners through third parties?

Yes. We can set the HREF and IMG tags in our banner serving program to a URL on their site, and surfers are "passed through" seamlessly. We can also set "datestamps" for "cache-busting" techniques.

Can you serve HTML and Java ads?

Yes, so long as they are within our banner file size maximum of 12K.

What's the next step?

Why don't you begin by purchasing 10,000 or 20,000 page views on our site and see how it works for you. You can e-mail us or pick up the phone and call our advertising sales staff at (520) 319-8600, Monday through Friday, 9 am to 5 pm Mountain Time. We look forward to helping you make your business a success.