Frequently asked questions about banner ads

If you are new to promoting your Web site through banner ads you probably have some questions. Here are some of the most commonly asked.

How does banner advertising work?

We display your banner ad on our site where it can be seen by our site’s visitors. If someone is interested in your product or service, they click on the banner and are transferred automatically to your site where you can tell them more and, hopefully, get them to make a purchase or commitment. We sell you advertising space on our site on the basis of how many times your banner is seen, a measurement called CPM.

What does CPM mean?

CPM refers to “cost per thousand” and is used by the advertising industry to describe how many people have viewed the banner ad ("page views") or received an “impression” by seeing the ad.

What does “click-through” mean?

When someone is interested in your banner ad, they click on it and are transported to your Web site. Every time someone clicks on your banner, it is called a “click-through,” and the “click-through rate” is expressed either in percent or clicks per thousand.

How can I find out how well my banner is working?

We keep track of the times your banner was viewed, the number of click-throughs and the click-through rate. We make this information available to you “real time” on our site anytime during the month, using an account name and a password.

What kind of click-through rate should I expect?

Ours is a highly targeted site, attracting Latvian community groups and business people. Your banner ad will appear throughout the entire Latvians Online site. You can expect a 1 percent to 3 percent click-through rate, or higher if your banner is very compelling. It all depends on your banner’s message and catchiness.

What size banner can I use?

We use three standard sizes: 468 pixels wide by 60 pixels high (large banner), 160 pixels wide by 160 pixels high (small square banner) and 160 pixels wide by 600 pixels high (large skyscraper). We allow the file size of the banner to be no more than 15-20 K, so keep your animations “tight.”

What do you charge to prepare a banner for us?

We have a Web designer who can create a banner for you if you already have the concept with a logo, some simple animation of text, etc. Cost for this service is USD 100.

What if I don’t have a Web site to link to?

If you don’t have your own Web site that your advertisement can link to, we can create a PDF of your Microsoft Word document—containing more details on your product or service—that will be stored on our site and linked to your text or banner ad. 

What’s the next step?

Choose which ad size best suits you and try it for a month or two. Contact us, email your ad and we can put it up on our site as soon as we have received payment. You can follow the progress of your campaign by choosing to have an account which you can access regularly yourself. If you are happy with the success of the campaign contact us regarding discounted long-term advertising.