How much should I charge advertisers - advice wanted please

[Mike George]

I have a few sites serving a particular industry, and I currently use Adsense to generate some income, plus a handful of small ad spaces I have sold on pages containing articles about specific topics, and some afiliate ads.

I am rebuilding one of my sites and the new layout includes space for banner ads at the top of most pages, and I want to sell this ad space as well as using Adsense and affiliate ads. What I'm not sure about is how much should I be charging for the space?

I know how many members there are, how often they visit, how many page views there are, etc, and I am planning to dispaly the ads 1 in 20 page views on a random basis, so I can say each ad will get x impressions per day to a targeted audience.

I would be grateful for any advice on how to set a price to quote potential advertisers?

[Spiderden]

Unfortunately there is no magical formula that can calculate it's worth based on page views, unique visitors etc as calculating it's value is more complicated than that. Other factors come into it, such as the niche you're in and how targeted the traffic to your site is. What I would do is base the cost on the amount that AdSense banners generate in each position. Make one of the rotating 20 banners an AdSense one so you can keep an eye on how well that spot is performing and adjust your charges accordingly.

[dotwhack]

How about doing some research - find some sites on a similar industry or theme to yours, phone them up & enquire about banner space and page views etc. I reckon soemone must do something similar - then either just charge a similar figure so you're in line with everyone else or undercut them a bit to compete (not too much or you might end up undervalueing your site). By doing that research you might also see who's advertsing there and got potential leads for them to advertise on your site.

[Mike George]

Thanks for the ideas.

I will include an adsense unit, but I am hoping to charge a lot more than I would get from that, because I find on my sites most of the ads are aimed at consumers and not at the trade. This is because the keyword 'courier' features on most pages and attracts ads for suppliers of delivery services, but most my users are not interested in them and would be more likely to click on ads for services and supplies for the trade.

I have done some research and checked out the quoted prices on similar sites. I am also experimenting with some banner ad campaigns on adwords, to see what kind of CPM I have to bid in order to get them displayed on other sites.