Advertising on Wakeboarder.com

How does banner advertising on Wakeboarder.com 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.

What does CPM mean?

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?

Most advertisers choose to have their banner run throughout our whole site. In some cases, advertisers only want their banner to show up on a certain section or page of the site. This is not a problem for us, and the cost remains the same.

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 we can e-mail these to you upon request any time during your ad campaign, and we report these statistics to you at the end of the campaign. Besides the click-throughs, banner advertising also has branding value. Even though someone may not have clicked on your ad, they may read the ad message which helps your brand awareness, and they may decide to drop by your site later.

What kind of click-through rate should I expect?

Ours is a very targeted site, as our audience is mostly all people who wakeboard and wakeskate. You can expect a minimum of a 2% click-through rate, or higher if your banner is very compelling and of interest. It all depends on your banner's message and catchiness. We often see banners that get click-through rates of up to 10%.

How can I get a higher click-through rate?

There are a few ways to increase click-through rates. Banners that offer the user a reason to come to their site seem to be the most successful. Such as offering 10% off of a wakeboard if you click on the banner, or something else of the sort. Ads that are straightforward and not confusing also receive higher click-through rates. The best way to achieve a high click-through rate is to specifically target your ad to a specific page or section of our site. For example, if you were a company selling Hyperlite wakeboards, it would be smart for you to choose to place your banner exclusively on our pages that contain reviews of Hyperlite wakeboards, or other kinds of wakeboards.

Why are some CPM rates on other sites higher or lower than others?

Typical rates range from $5 CPM to $25 CPM for sites with very general 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. Our rate is $20 CPM, which is a great deal for a site as highly targeted as Wakeboarder.com. The reason for our low rates, is that Wakeboarder.com was launched in January, 2000 and we're trying to introduce as many companies as possible to see how powerful advertising on our site can be. We also are trying to support the sport, and don't believe in charging high prices just because we can.

Do you have any sort of guarantee of results?

Due to the fact that click-through rates often depend on how good the banner being used is, we can't guarantee that you'll reach a certain click-through rate. However, we are so confident you'll be happy with your results that if you aren't satisfied, we'll let you buy the same number of ad impressions of the campaign you were unhappy with for half the price, which is a $10 CPM.

Do you have a minimum purchase?

Yes, an ad campaign must be at least 5,000 ad impressions, which costs you $100. It usually takes a little time for users to notice your banner ad and click on it, so ad buys smaller then 5,000 page views are not recommended. It also saves us from having to do a large amount of billing for smaller ad buys.

Do you have any sort of bulk buy or other kind of discounts?

If an advertiser is willing to commit to a significantly large ad purchase we are willing to negotiate some sort of discount. This depends on the size of the ad campaign, and other factors to be discussed.

How long does X amount of ad impressions last?

Obviously, this depends on the amount of traffic Wakeboarder.com is receiving when you place your campaign. This also depends on the amount of available ad inventory we have. However, we can stretch out the length of your campaign to go as long as you'd like. We can just run your campaign as fast as possible, or we can strech it out so you only show X amount of impressions per day. For example, if you bought the minimum of 5000 impressions you could make this last 5 days by telling us to only run 1000 impressions a day. Or, you could have us place your banner in our rotation and let your impressions get used up as fast as possible (which depends on our traffic level and the number of other companies advertising at the same time).

What size banner can I use?

We use the standard banner size: 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high. We allow the file size of the banner to be no more than 15.0K, so keep your animations "tight".

What do you charge to prepare a banner for us?

If you already have your own banners, or can can create them yourself that's fine. If you'd like us to design a banner for you, we charge about $150 per banner if you already have the concept with some simple animation of text, etc. If you want us to work with you and spend some time to come up with some good banners, we bill on an hourly rate.

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.

Can you serve HTML and Java ads?

Yes, so long as they are within our banner file size maximum of 15K.

What's the next step for setting up banner advertising?

Why don't you begin by purchasing 5,000 or 10,000 page views on our site and see how it works for you. You can e-mail ed@wakeboarder.com or call Ed Harmon at 512-789-3149.