Make Your Online Media Kit Visible and Comprehensive
Advertisers need a quick and accessible overview of your site
Some websites choose to publish rates online, while others prefer to list only a contact email address. Either way, make sure you post the rest of your online media kit in a highly visible spot and keep the URL handy to email to interested advertisers. Some companies also print this information to send via snail mail.
Here are some items to include in your media kit:
Site description. Help your advertisers understand your site by giving them a quick overview. Don't make them search your site to learn what you have to offer — give them a quick one- or two-paragraph description right in your media kit.
Rates. Top sites, with close to a million page views per month, can demand top dollar. Ads sold per impression are typically less expensive than ads sold per click-through. Ads sold on a CPC (cost per click) basis pay only when a user clicks on the ad. Thus, for the advertiser to make money, they will have to sell many more CPC ads than they would cost-per-impression ads. The basic rule is that the more targeted your advertising gets, the more it should cost.
List your CPM and the minimum number of impressions (page views) an advertiser can contract for. Decide also whether you'll give discounts for larger contracts and if you'll pay the standard 15 percent commission to agencies.
Banner Ad Sizes. Industry standards are 468 x 60 pixels and 234 x 60 pixels. State a limit in kilobytes to keep downloading times to a minimum. (7-12KB is a good range to shoot for.)
Traffic. If possible, give a monthly total of page views, number of visits, average visit length, most popular days and times and most frequently requested pages. (Your banner ad rotation software may provide this information for you.)
Demographics. List demographic information, like gender, age, household income, geography and buying habits, if you have this information available. This is very valuable to your advertiser and will help you ensure your site is filled with advertising messages that are appropriate to your audience.
Auditing information. If you have independent audit information, list it on your rate card. This shows that the information you are presenting is accurate and nonbiased. Smaller websites may not be able to afford this luxury, however.
