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Planning Your Ad Campaign with Ghostvillage.com

Internet advertising is an effective and powerful way to spread your message and build your brand. People use the Web for almost every facet of their lives, from shopping to studying, from dating to playing games. We know millions are on the Web, yet few businesses understand how to effectively target and reach those users, and even fewer Web sites understand how to sell the space they have.

This article is intended to help you plan your online advertising campaign (hopefully with Ghostvillage.com).

In the early days of the Web, display ads were judged by one metric: click-through rates. Though click-throughs are important, they're not the only use of display ads. Online marketers should never forget the power of branding.

Branding
Branding is an advertising practice that hasn't changed in centuries. Though the technology and media have evolved, the process is still the same. You need your potential buyers to be aware of who you are, what you do, and what you're selling.

There's a rule of three in advertising. You need to put your brand and message in front of potential buyers three times for them to see it once. They need to experience (see, read, or hear) the brand/message nine times before they begin to remember it. That means you need to place your brand/message in front of your target audience at least 27 times before you become memorable.

When your target audience knows who you are, and has heard of your product, selling to them becomes a much easier task, because they're already familiar.

The key is consistency. Consistency in your message, in your advertising efforts, and in your look…

…but not too consistent. In years of managing advertising campaigns on Ghostvillage.com, we've noticed that new ads tend to get clicked on because our regular users see something new and are curious. Over the span of a month or so, the click-through rate begins to drop off a bit because the ad has become familiar. We recommend changing your ad periodically to refresh our audience's interest in your brand/message. This doesn't mean make a 180-degree change in course; a simple graphic change while maintaining your color scheme can be all it takes to appear new, yet familiar to the audience. The good news is that Ghostvillage.com is a Web site, it's dynamic. We allow our advertisers to change their artwork as often as once per week if they wish. Just send us new artwork, and tell us where to link it. Be consistent in your message, and you will see results.

Ad Design
Without a doubt, animated ads on Ghostvillage.com receive a higher click-through rate than non-animated ads. If you look throughout our Web site, you'll notice we don't use flash animations, or hardly any blinking messages at all. The reason is because we want to save the flash and animation for your ads. Let the ads draw the attention, let our content keep users coming back again and again.

Measuring Effectiveness
Just because someone doesn't click on your ad and buy the first time, doesn't mean that they won't do so in the future. Perhaps they've become familiar with your product and message on Ghostvillage.com, but ultimately decide to buy your product from a brick-and-mortar store. Your ad here still worked.

Know What You're Buying
Many Web sites sell display ads, but few tell you what you're buying. For example, some Web sites will go right along selling their banner space as long as someone is willing to pay. If their banners are in a rotation, that means that each new ad that is added into the rotation diminishes the overall amount of impressions that Web site can deliver. Ghostvillage.com limits the amount of banners we rotate so we can ensure a specific number of impressions for each advertiser per week (see the amounts on our advertising page). If you see advertising rates cheaper (or more expensive, for that matter) on other Web sites, you need to know the amount of impressions you can expect to receive in order to compare apples to apples.

You know what you're buying with Ghostvillage.com. Beware of Web sites who can't tell you, and can't report on how many impressions and clicks they're delivering.

Successful marketing involves knowing your market, understanding your target audience, and reaching out to them regularly with a consistent message so they know all about you when they're ready to buy. Ghostvillage.com is proud to have helped so many companies and organizations make an impact over the years. We're ready to help even more in the future.

How to Get Started
To find out more, please email us at info@ghostvillage.com.