215. Online Advertising › putting it all together Investigate your target audience – what websites are they likely to be visiting? It is likely that the type of creative you may use and the payment model you follow will largely be determined by the websites that you wish to advertise on. Niche websites with a smaller, but likely more targeted, audience will most likely charge a flat rate for display advertising, or a CPA rate. They could probably be flexible in display options that they give you, but you will need to take into account their bandwidth costs if they serve the adverts. High traffic websites with a broad audience will usually charge on a CPM basis. They will broker their advertising inventory through an advertising network, or even a number of advertising networks. Knowing your goals, your target audience and the format of your adverts, it’s time to brief your creative team to ensure that you have the optimum banners for your campaign. Your online adverts will need to: Attract attention Convey a message Entice action All advertising needs an appropriate landing page. Whether this involves creating a microsite, or merely ensuring users are coming through to an existing page on the website, ensure that clickthroughs are not being wasted. Generally, sending advertising traffic to your home page is not a good idea as it leaves the user deciding where to go next. Animation attracts attention, but be wary of being one of seven animated banners on a website. Banners should not be considered in isolation, but rather in the context of the website on which they will appear. Web users respond well to being told what to do, and the content of an online advert should be concise and directional. Examples include: • “phone now for the best deals on insurance” • “click here for fast home delivery” • “donate now”212