Banner Exchanges

Whether times are economically tough or not, we know you’re always looking for economical ad options that will increase your Web visibility. Let’s kick off the year by visiting an oldie-but-goodie online promotional option, banner exchange programs.

Banner exchange programs work best for smaller sites that haven’t yet built up enough traffic to attract the attention of advertisers, yet still want to look like they have advertisers. In the most rudimentary sense, banner exchanging is simply trading promotional space on your site with promotional space on another web site. There are actual banner “exchanges,” which are, like a stock exchange, a central network to facilitate the swapping of this promotional space.

Banner exchanges are free to join. Once you sign up, the exchange will email you a string of code that allows them to “serve” other exchange banners — these banners will appear on whichever pages you place the exchange code. You will also need to create your own ad banners that will be served on other exchange members’ web sites.

Because banner exchanges are automated processes, you are usually fairly limited in what kinds of ads you can produce. Most exchanges (and there are literally dozens) accept only a few ad types and sizes. The most common is the 468×60 banner. On some sites, however, text ads, buttons, and other industry standard-sized ad creative are accepted. Check with the exchange before you join.

Most banner exchanges are national in scope and aren’t choosy about what kinds of sites join them. The vast majority, however, won’t accept anything but G-rated material. If you’re looking for something more targeted, there are a number of vertical banner exchanges ranging from geographically targeted ones such as the E-banner Exchange (Australia and the UK) and the Raleigh Banner Exchange (which only accepts banners from businesses in Raleigh, NC) to special interest exchanges such as BannerWomen (women sites only), Home and Garden Banner Exchange, and the Disney Banner Network.

Pros & Cons

The biggest positive about banner exchanges is that you get promotion 100% FREE — not only are banner exchanges free to join, but you’ll also get your ad, in living color, out there on the Web without having to pay a red cent for the placement. Most exchanges also offer some sort of online performance tracking. This is important because you should be able to, at the very least, track impressions delivered and click-thru ratios.

Now, just because banner exchanges provide you with free advertising doesn’t mean that you should just go and become banner exchange-happy. First, you need to do your research before joining an exchange. Select those that let you choose which category of sites within the exchange your banner will run on AND give you the opportunity to filter out those banners that come from sites of which you disapprove.

You also want to ascertain exactly *where* on the pages of other sites your banner will appear. Some exchanges offer poor placement (like page bottom), which will hurt your click-thru.

Watch Out for the Exchange Rate

All this free advertising has to have a hitch, right? Well, if there is any in banner exchanges, it’s the “exchange rate.” The exchange rate is the ratio of your ad swap, which is never one-to-one (1:1) for free. In the vast majority of cases, the exchange rate will be 3:2 or even 2:1 (meaning that your site must host 2 exchange ad impressions for every 1 impression your banner gets somewhere else). That being said, some exchanges do offer more favorable exchange rates, like 1:1 or even 1:2, but they will ask for a modest fee to do so.

Banner exchanges can be great, but free advertising doesn’t mean abandon all principles — you’ll still want to craft good ads so they generate results, you should still only accept ads that you think your audience will find useful, and you shouldn’t rush into committing your precious web site space to others unless you feel you’re faring equally in return.

Related Links:

*Banner Exchanges*

1AdClick
123 Banners
LinkBuddies
E-banner Exchange
Raleigh Banner Exchange
BannerWomen
Disney Banner Network
Home and Garden Banner Exchange

Internet Advertising Bureau

WebAdvantage.net archived article:
Web Site Marketing on a Shoestring Budget

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