Step 4 – Doing Your Due Diligence
Previous: Contacting the Webmaster
Once you finally are able to get a hold of someone with the site you’re wanting to advertise on, the first thing I want to know is what kind of traffic they have, for example, how much traffic, where does their traffic come from and which country is their traffic from. Then I ask them if they demographic data available for their traffic. The next thing I’m worried about is price. If their traffic doesn’t match the offer I had in mind or another offer I think will work, I don’t even care about the price. Then we’ll find out which placements my banners will be served in. And finally, we will want to find out what their out clause is.
If you’re interested in running an offer directly on a website and want to buy banner inventory, please have an idea of how well the offer converts and what kind of promotion methods work for the offer. Have you ran it on social media or search before? Or better yet did you take my advice and know how well it performed on the Display Network. If so, you’ll know what CPM rates are working for you now and you can negotiate your profit margin based on that.
Also, while you’re talking with your contact, ask them what banner sizes have the most volume and best ave CTR’s. If you’re flying blind, ala testing a new offer on a site you haven’t tested before, do your math backwards using the offer’s payout and CTR they quoted you. This way you can have an idea of what kind of CPM you can afford, while taking whatever margin you deem necessary for your campaigns.
When it comes to banner sizes, my most favorite sizes are 160×600, 300×250 and 728×90. This is because they are typically the largest and most popular sizes for their type, vertical, rectangle and horizontal, respecitvely. For further information you can research the IAB Ad Unit Guidelines.
While engaged in this same conversation ask your contact what offers are popular on their site right now to get an idea of what might be working for affiliates. This part is up to you, I always suggest running an offer you know inside and out, especially if its a new traffic source for you. There are few things worse than a media buy performing horribly.
Next: Demand Proof of Their Traffic Statistics





