While many webmasters and bloggers prefer to opt for one or more advertising networks – including the best known Google AdSense – to manage the advertising space of their site, the “direct” sale of advertising to advertisers does not remain an excellent means of making one’s site or blog profitable...
On the contrary, allows you to review upwards the rates and revenues you can expect from your banner ads or your links, to no longer depend on an advertising agency and the commissions they charge, as well as to maintain full control over the management of your advertising strategy and therefore the monetization of your blog or site.
But also having to attract and convince “live” advertisers presents the disadvantage of asking for more time as well as having to manage the commercial, legal and technical aspects of sourcing advertisers and setting up advertising campaigns.
It should be noted that by “direct” we mean a campaign managed without the intervention of an intermediary such as an advertising agency or an affiliate platformFor instance.
Learn how to increase your site or blog’s advertising revenue by negotiating “live” with brands to advertise on your site.
I. Write an advertisers page
The first step in attracting advertisers and selling “live” advertising on your website, is to start by creating a page through which they can easily contact you and find out more about your website or blog.
It’s not enough to create a standard blog and contact page and expect advertisers to contact you.
This is usually called an “advertiser page”. You will also find it sometimes referred to as “Advertising”, “Become an Advertiser” or simply “Advertisers”.
In the menu of this dedicated page, various important information not to be overlooked and to be inserted imperatively:
- The audience of your website or blog;
- The various advertising opportunities offered on your site;
- The prices of the different advertising formats you offer (optional);
- A link to your Media Kit if you have one;
- A separate contact email address, for example: advertisers@mon-site-web.com;
- If possible, references from advertisers who have already run advertising campaigns on your site.
We usually find the advertisers page at the top or bottom of the sites page, integrated into the links in the secondary menu.
Take the test: 95% of top sites have an advertiser page.
And it will be a great way to discover good examples in this area and be able to get inspired for your “Advertising” page.
2. Create a Media Kit for your blog or site
Often little known and not widespread among non-professional bloggers and webmasters, the Media Kit is still a great tool to more easily convince brands to advertise on their website or blog.
In addition to being a must in the sectors, used by all advertising agencies and professional websites.
It is a document – often in PDF format – whose goal is to make it easy for advertisers to find all the different media and advertising opportunities you offer on your website, as well as important facts and figures to know about your website.
In summary, some elements to create a good Media Kit for your website:
- The public and the target: the number of monthly visitors and the number of page views of the site, as well as the main target audience (Youth, 25-49 years old, CSP+, etc.);
- The history and positioning of the site: date of creation, editorial style and target audience, position in its sector, etc. ;
- Your offer: the different advertising opportunities offered, the different advertising formats on which advertisers can be present, etc. ;
- The technical specifications for advertising on your site: banner quality level, campaign calendar, etc. (optional);
- The prices of the different offers;
- References of brands that have already advertised on your site, with, if possible, illustrated examples of concrete cases;
- A separate email address and name of the contact responsible for advertisers on your site;
Not all websites always have a Media Kit. Others present it to advertisers only after an initial email exchange.
3. Define your site’s ad formats
One of the important and often forgotten steps for webmasters and bloggers starting to sell “live” advertising to advertisers is choosing and specifying the different formats, opportunities and banner ads on their website or blog that advertisers can be featured on.
Clearly, what will you put into your media offer.
To do this, you need to start with your site. Which advertising formats are already integrated:
- Advertising banners, established dimensions;
- video;
- Connections ;
- Elements ;
- Post on social networks;
- News bulletin;
- …
If the ones present are not suitable or are no longer keeping up with market trends, which ones can you easily integrate?
Moving on to event formats, which ones have you already practiced on your website or are you ready to implement?
As a reminder, there are many premium ad placements, including: skins, interstitials, etc.
There are also advertising opportunities that can be specific to your website, such as having a brand highlight featured on one of your slides if you have a ‘Featured’ carousel on the home page of your website or blog. .
Think about your site, the placements you can offer, and what you’re willing to accept.
Finally, there are still other advertising opportunities whose presence depends on each website, such as email, newsletter presence or sponsored articles, and which can also be included in your website’s average offer to advertisers.
4. Design a compelling offer and set prices
After carefully selecting the different advertising formats and opportunities that you can offer advertisers on your site, it’s time to bring them together in a media offer that hits the mark with the brands and allows you to facilitate your “live” negotiations with them.
Without forgetting to set the prices of the different offers.
Let’s start with the average bid design, because it will determine the rates you will offer.
In this regard, several behaviors are possible. Or you decide to offer each advertising format completely autonomously and according to one or more types of remuneration (CPM, CPC or CPL).
If this is the case, I recommend favoring the remuneration a CPM which will generally be more beneficial to your site or blog, especially on general topics.
And in this case, you set the prices for each of your ad formats at CPM (cost per thousand impressions), if that’s your chosen payout type.
Also, keep in mind that if you embark on this type of offer, you will need to use a tool to manage the distribution of your banner ads and collect statistics (number of impressions, number of clicks, CTR, etc.).
The other possibility is to create a sponsorship-type multimedia offer. This is especially interesting for websites and blogs that have low to medium audiences and/or are in topics with few advertisers.
The idea is to no longer sell your advertising spaces per display (CPM) or per click (CPC) but to offer them in a long-term offer (weekly, monthly, semi-annual, etc.). At the same time, the relationship with the advertiser is different.
Become the only brand present on this format in the given period and enter into a “sponsorship” type relationship.
If your site or blog has a smaller audience, you can also combine different advertising formats in the same offer to more easily interest advertisers.
Finally, the last possibility is to create “tailored” media offers that bring together multiple formats and/or advertising opportunities in the same offer and at a given price.
For example, you could launch a “Premium Visibility Pack” which includes 100,000 impressions in 728*90 px mega-banners and 75,000 impressions in 300*250 px blocks, as well as a promotional email from your newsletter and a sponsored article featured in the “A la Une” carousel on your website’s home page.
And so on, many combinations are possible, but I think you understand the principle!
In conclusion, attracting advertisers and negotiating “directly” with them for the management of advertising campaigns proves to be an excellent solution for monetizing your site or blog.
However, it requires more work and takes care of some important aspects, but generally guarantees – when the strategy is effective and well managed – significantly higher advertising revenues than those of advertising networks.
And even more so when you weren’t already in an exclusive classic advertising agency.
And you, are you interested in negotiating “live” with advertisers for your website or blog? Do you already sell all or part of your site’s advertising banners “directly”? What techniques and strategies do you use?
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