Tag: adroll

Featured client: Mademoiselle M

 

 
Mademoiselle M is an online store that sells hand-fabricated jewelry, made from gold, silver, pearls, and other precious materials.

They recently made a set of banner ads using Canned Banners, and we wanted to feature them because:

  • They’ve got great-looking product photos. Professional product photography is key if you’re selling online. If you own an online store and you already have professional product photos, it’s easy to use those photos when designing banner ads with Canned Banners.
  • The overall color scheme is consistent. The jewelry photos were taken against a white background, and the color scheme for the banners matches this, resulting in a clean, elegant look.
  • The font choice of Tallys matches the banners’ overall elegant, sophisticated style.
  • The banners follow the important Final Frame Rule, meaning that you can tell what the ad is trying to say by looking only at the very last frame.

 
Note that the 728×90 has been scaled down to fit the 600px page width of our blog.

View original template »

    

 
Side note: Mademoiselle M is powered by the ecommerce platform Zen Cart and uses our partner ad network AdRoll for retargeting. We’ve seen this sort of trifecta before. Maybe now we’ll have to replicate our Shopify App for the Zen Cart platform, who knows?
 

1 Comment by on August 5, 2011
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Now that I’ve created my real estate ad, where do I run it online?

You’ve done the smart thing and created a real estate ad using Canned Banners. Now what?

There are some great options to get your banner ad seen by local home buyers. Here’s a few ideas to get you started:

Zillow.com

Home buyers use Zillow to search for homes, mortgages, and real estate advice. It’s a perfect target audience. You can target your ad based on ZIP code, which will ensure that only home buyers in your area see your ads.

Go here to get started: www.zillow.com/advertising/Agent.htm
 

Local news websites

The local news websites that you choose all depend on your area. For instance, if you want to find home buyers in the San Francisco Bay Area, you might consider advertising on SFGate.com, a local news website that gets millions of visitors every month.

You’re not just limited to newspaper websites. You can probably advertise on local TV and radio station websites, independent newspaper sites, and local blogs.

To get started, try a simple Google search like “san francisco news.”
 

Retargeting networks


Retargeting shows ads to your website visitors after they’ve left your website. If someone comes to your website and browses around for a few minutes, but leaves without contacting you, you can use retargeting to make sure they keep seeing your ads.

To get started, read this blog post we wrote about retargeting for real estate agents.
 

Google AdWords

Google AdWords lets you advertise with banner ads, not just boring little text ads. You’ll only pay when someone clicks your ad, usually somewhere between $0.50 and $1.50 per click (or more…it really depends on your campaign settings).

To get started, go to adwords.google.com and create an account. Then when you’re building your campaign, go to your ‘Campaigns’ tab along the top. Then click the ‘Ads’ tab:


 
Then select ‘Image ad’ from the ‘New ad’ button:


 
Then you’ll be able to upload the banner ads you created with Canned Banners. Make sure to upload the banner ad SWF files—these are the animated, interactive files.

In order to make sure your ads are being targeted at the right people, choose keywords that are unique to your area. For example, in San Francisco, you could choose keywords like ‘san francisco real estate,’ ‘san francisco real estate agent,’ or ‘noe valley real estate.’ Or read our blog post on how to target specific cities.
 

Questions?

Got more questions about online real estate advertising? Just email us.
 

1 Comment by on December 4, 2010
filed in Advertising Help & Advice
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Featured client: Loja do Arco

 

 
Loja do Arco, in the heart of the historic center of Sintra, Portugal, is dedicated to disseminating Portuguese culture in the areas of literature, music, and traditional crafts. They created a very nice banner ad yesterday using Canned Banners:
 


 
Not only is this a handsome banner ad, but it’s the first one that’s ever been done in Portugese using Canned Banners. Anybody want to tell us what it says? :-)

UPDATE: Loja do Arco sent us the translated English: “You never had better reasons to buy national; 3 of the big names in portuguese music; Click here to buy online”

A few things to note about Loja do Arco’s banner:

  • The logo is in transparent PNG format, so the black background is still visible behind the white logo (and a very nice logo at that)
  • They kept the text (whatever it says) brief
  • They chose a banner template that suited the small thumbnail images they wanted to use

We also found out the Loja do Arco’s online store is built on the Shopify e-commerce platform and they found us through our partner ad network AdRoll. Our three companies make a great combo, don’t they? One lets you easily build a professional online store, one lets you quickly launch retargeting campaigns to drive traffic to your store, and one lets you create really nice-looking banner ads quickly and inexpensively.
 

No Comments by on November 30, 2010
filed in Featured Clients
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How to launch a retargeting campaign.
Step-by-step instructions for
real estate agents.

This is Part II of a series. Click here to read Part I.

So now that you know what retargeting is, you probably want to know how you can start using it yourself. It’s easy. In fact, so easy that we’ve boiled it down to 4 steps:

Step 1: Create an account at AdRoll.com

AdRoll is a Canned Banners partner. They have a self-serve system where you can quickly build and launch retargeting campaigns. Best of all, they offer a very generous two week free trial (coupled with the fact that your first order with Canned Banners is also free, you can do everything described here for exactly $0).

Go to AdRoll.com and create an account. You’ll be given a piece of customized code (AdRoll calls it a “retargeting pixel”) to add to your website. This code lets you capture people and add them to your retargeting list when they visit your website.

Note: There are other retargeting networks—we just recommend AdRoll because it’s easy to use. If you want to check out other retargeting networks, visit the Canned Banners partners page or do a Google search for “retargeting.”
 

Step 2: Get home buyers to your website

Now that you’ve installed your AdRoll retargeting pixel, you need to build your audience by getting local home buyers to visit your website. You’re probably already doing plenty of marketing such as the things shown below. If you’re not, then start—retargeting only works when people visit your website.

A few commonly used marketing tactics:
 

 

Step 3: Create a banner ad using Canned Banners

You’re going to need a nice banner ad to show to home buyers. Go to Canned Banners and create an ad in minutes—seriously, all you need are a logo and a few photos. Your first order is completely free.

We have three banner ad templates that are specifically designed for real estate. Click the thumbnails to start customizing one:
 

Customize this ad » Customize this ad » Customize this ad »

 

 

 

 

Step 4: Upload your banners to AdRoll and
launch your retargeting campaign

 

To upload the ads you created using Canned Banners, log into
your AdRoll.com dashboard and click “Ads” on the right-hand side.
 
Once you’ve received your banner ad files from Canned Banners (takes 24 hrs or less … usually way less), go back to AdRoll.com and upload them. Then you’ll be able to launch your campaign and start showing realty ads to people who have visited your website.

Make sure to update your ads whenever you have new listings. Test different versions of your ads, too. Things like wording, color, and imagery can have a big impact on how effective your ads are. Luckily, with Canned Banners it’s easy to make multiple versions of the same ad.

Do you have more questions on how to launch an online retargeting campaign?
Just email us.
 

No Comments by on November 28, 2010
filed in Advertising Help & Advice
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Online Marketing for non-Ninjas

This slide deck is a great “cheat sheet” for the world of online marketing today. It was put together by Josh Breinlinger, former Director of Product at retargeting network AdRoll (a Canned Banners partner) and now Senior Associate at the venture capital firm Sigma Partners.

The slide deck breaks down the various online marketing tactics your business can employ into bite-sized chunks. And for every different tactic, Josh recommends a handful of companies and resources to get you started (including yours truly, Canned Banners, for creating banner ads).

Online Marketing – Tactics for non-Ninjas

View “Online Marketing for Non-ninjas” on posterous.com.
 

1 Comment by on September 16, 2010
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Canned Banners now available within AdRoll.com campaign builder—with 20% discount!


 
AdRoll is an ad network that specializes in retargeting. Yesterday AdRoll added a Canned Banners button within their campaign building tool. This allows AdRoll customers to visit the Canned Banners Ad Builder when they need banner ads and get a 20% discount!
 
The 20% discount should be automatically applied by clicking through the Canned Banners button within AdRoll.com. If the 20% discount doesn’t show up, just apply the coupon code ADROLL20 on the same page where you’re asked to review your banners prior to final checkout.
 
UPDATE 4-Dec-2012: Please note that the ADROLL20 coupon code was discontinued in June 2012 when we lowered our pricing.
 

No Comments by on August 4, 2010
filed in Ad Networks, News and Updates
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How does retargeting work?

We at Canned Banners are big fans of retargeting. It’s a great way to deliver relevant ads to people who are actually interested in your products and services. Read our illustrated guide below to learn how retargeting works.

After you’ve created your banner ads using Canned Banners, try running your ads to an ad network that does retargeting.

And don’t ever hesitate to contact us if you have any questions.

* Really sorry for using another tacky wad of cash.
 

No Comments by on July 2, 2010
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Ad networks explained

One of the easiest ways to show your banner to your potential customers is through an
ad network. An ad network is a company that has already bought ad space on different websites and sells that ad space to you. You tell the ad network what type of people you want to show your ad to (your “target audience”) and how much money you want to spend, and the ad network will run your ad on a combination of websites that match your criteria.


 
Here are a few ad networks we recommend:

If you need help deciding which ad network to use, just contact us.

Read about placing your banner ad directly with websites »
Read about media agencies »
 

No Comments by on June 10, 2010
filed in Ad Networks, Advertising Help & Advice
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Banner ad sizes explained

Most banner ads come in standard sizes. Canned Banners currently offers the most common ad sizes (width x height in pixels):

  • 728×90 “leaderboards”
  • 300×250 “medium rectangles”
  • 160×600 “skyscrapers”

View an image of standard banner ad sizes »

The ad network AdRoll did research in April 2010 and determined that 300×250 banner ads perform 20-30% better than 728×90 or 160×600 ads (on average). View the complete AdRoll research.

There are a lot more banner ad sizes than just the three sizes above. You can find more details at the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB).

Read about different banner ad formats »
 

No Comments by on June 10, 2010
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