Advertisement Recommendations

Here are a few suggestions for getting the most out of your banner advertising program with Anime News Network. We've found that any of our advertisors who follow just #1 and #2 get at least 1% click throughs (well, at least in the good ol' days before the internet economy crash).

1. Have two to eight banners in rotation at any given time.

   Fact: not every advertisement works for every person. Fact: People often need be exposed to an advertisement many timed before they become interested. Result: Too few banners is a bad thing, and so is too many. ANN recommends between two to eight banners at a time. 2 banners if you have less than 500,000 impressions / month; 3-4 banners if you have 500,000 to a million impressions / month; 5-8 banners if you have more than a million impressions a month.

   
   
   
2. Rotate your banners frequently.

   Our past stats have shown that the click through rate for banners generally falls dramatically during the second month. So run banners for 4-5 weeks and replace them. Our scheduling agent can help you automatically rotate your banners.

   
   
   
3. Use cute girls and cute guys in your banners (but separate banners).

   The most successful banner in ANN's history received in excess of 4% click through rates for several months in a row. Why? Because it featured a very cute girl in a somewhat suggestive (but not explicit) pose. But a large portion of ANN's readers are female (22%, from our last survey), so if you want to get more click throughs, advertise to them too. Try running two banners, one with a cute and sexy girl (something from Love Hina perhaps) and a second one with a good looking Bishonen (something from Yuu Watase perhaps).

   
   
   
4. Think Branding.

   While its is important to have an array of different banners running, make sure that your brand is prominent in all of them. Establishing and promoting a recognizeable brand throughout all your advertising campaigns on this and other sites, now and later, is very important.

   
   
   
5. Check your stats from time to time

   Some advertisements just don't work. Check your stats and remove the banners that have low click through rates. Since real-time stats are available to you whenever you want them this is easy. Likewise, you may want to increase the number of times very successful banners are displayed (you can do this using our banner weight feature).

   
   
   
   Additional Suggestions for Stores
   
   
   
6. Advertise specific items

   Discussions with our advertisers has shown that advertisements for specific items, linking directly to the item in your store (sales or highly anticipated new releases) are very successful. While they do not necessarily result in a higher click through rate, they do result in a significantly higher purchase rate.

   
   
   
7. Holiday Advertisements

   Do advertise for the holidays (Easter, Halloween, Thanksgiving, Christmas) but don't over do it, and make absolutely sure your holiday banners are taken down immediately after the holiday (fortunately our scheduling feature can help you here too.)

   
   
   
8. Special Offers

   Got a special offer (sale, free gifts, etc..)? Promote it! The purpose of a special offer is to bring people in to your store, sure there's some benefit to increasing sales to your regular customers, but the biggest benefit is creating sales to new clients, and that won't happen if you don't promote the special offer.