What led me to buying banner inventory is quite simple.  I was absolutely fed up with Facebook’s continually changing ad policies and their incompetent support team.   I then moved over to Plenty of Fish and got tired of campaigns dying out quickly after spending a pretty penny to figure out worked.  I had always been working with MyAds and working with them usually was quite simple.  They had awesome support and my rep was always proactive, letting me know what changes were coming or just getting me on the phone to see what he could do to improve the relationship.  However, they came to a point where they wanted me to provide proof I owned the rights to the pictures of the girls I was using in my ads and they wanted proof the girls were at least 18 years of age.  At the time, I had neither.

Since I was getting frustrated with all three advertising platforms and had been wanting to get into display for quite some time, I decided it was time to officially make the transition into display.  The transition wasn’t the funnest thing to do, but once I figured out it, life has became much simpler.  I made a post about my first attempt at buying banner inventory, which resulted in a loss of $250, but I learned some great lessons with that first buy.

This guide to buying banner inventory will rehash some of that post. It will also provide quite a bit more detail on the things you want to know before signing your first insertion order.

Step 1 – Setting up Tracking and Getting an Ad Server

Step 2 – Finding Sites to Buy Banner Inventory On

Step 3 – Contacting the Webmaster

Step 4 – Doing Your Due Diligence

Step 5 – Demand Proof of Their Traffic Statistics

Step 6 – Demographic Research, Banner Placements and Negotiation Topics

Step 7 – Profit!