Banner ads are dead, right? Wrong! In fact, banner ads are where the “big players” graduate to once they’ve maxed out the amount they can spend on CPC. Why do most people think banner ads are dead, how do banner ads really work and how can you make insane amounts of money with banner ads? Read on to find out.

The Myth of Banner Ads Being Dead

The myth of banner ads being dead for direct response online marketers came from the fact that most business owners have tried banner ads at some point … Only to be sorely disappointed by the results.

Business owners have this experience because they don’t know what they’re doing. But you will, by the time you’re done reading this.

A word of caution: Banner ads aren’t easy to master. They’re not for beginners. They’re not for testing offers; they’re for rolling out successful offers.

If you have a new product and you don’t know if it’ll convert, test your traffic on AdWords. If you have an offer that’s converting like a monster, then roll out with banner ads.

Why Banner Ads Are Profitable

Banner ads are profitable for one reason: The sheer amount of traffic available is insane.

You could place your ad on just about any site in the world, some of which get hundreds of thousands to millions of visitors a day.

If you have an offer that converts like mad for single men in their 30’s and 40’s, then a banner ad on websites like AskMen or Maxim will easily take your business to the next level.

If you have an offer that converts very well for single moms, there are a ton of websites catered to that demographic as well.

How to Test Small With Banner Ads

There are three steps to testing with banner ads.

The first step is to test the offer and the conversion rate itself. It’s best to test this with Google AdWords rather than banner ads. The traffic is cheaper, more targeted and converts better. If you can’t get AdWords to convert, chances are you won’t get banner ads to convert.

The second step is to buy banners in small portions. One easy way to do this is to use Image Ads through Google’s Content Network. Place your banners on sites that have AdSense that support image ads and test out your CTR and conversion rate.

Finally, buy your first few banner ads. Make sure to tell them to limit the impressions to two per visitor per 48 hours. Make sure you’re only targeting in the United States to start, during peak business hours. Make sure you can stop serving ads if you find it doesn’t convert.

Most banner ad buys require that you pay $5,000 to $20,000 to buy. Most people get intimidated by these numbers. In reality, it really only costs you $300 to $800 to test a banner ad campaign.

If you have a 24 hour stop order, meaning you can stop your ad run in 24 hours, the risk you’re actually taking is very small. For example, if you do a $10,000 media buy, that’s $333 of banner ads per day. If you run it for one day and find that it’s not converting, just put in the stop order and you’ll have spent only about $500.

Basically, if it doesn’t work out you’re only out a few hundred dollars. If it does work out, you’ve secured $10,000 in media already. The risk is actually quite small while the payout is actually quite big.

Can You Make Money With Banner Ads?

The short answer is yes. If you have a profitable campaign and you’re ready to roll out to a more general demographic, banner ads can be a way to really make a killing. Test small, make sure you have a really great campaign before you roll out, then test your media buys with a tight leash on your stop orders and you’ll be well on your way to a safe test with incredible profit potential.