Ad Formats and Specs
Below are specifications for all our run of network ad formats and some helpful
tips for producing effective Product and Hosting Spotlight ads.
Unless otherwise indicated, all ad types are supported across the network. To ensure
that your ads are as effective as possible, each of Lake Quincy Media's
Publisher sites selects the ad formats and placements which will appeal to their
users. However, not all ad formats will appear on all Publisher sites, and the actual
placement of the ads on the page will vary. Please contact us if you need more information
on which sites currently display a particular format.
- All banners, including flash, must open a new window to display the advertisement.
- Looping is subject to approval; looping deemed high speed will not be accepted.
- Please test all target URLs prior to sending them and clearly match the URL to the
appropriate artwork.
- Please indicate whether your ads require cache busting and if so, advise on how
this should be implemented. For instance, if tags or URLs include a placeholder
to be replaced by a time stamp please make this clear.
- All HTML/JavaScript ads should include script to handle the case where JavaScript
is disabled or not installed.
- If the ads submitted are in Flash format it is necessary to submit an alternate
image for each ad (GIF, JPEG or PNG). This is the ad that will be displayed if Flash
images are blocked or the member does not have the necessary plug-in.
- In addition to alternate images, Flash SWF files must also contain a click handler.
For more information on how to build one of these into your banner, please refer
to our special click handler instructions.
- Tristitials - Snap2Eyes.com (not affiliated
with Lake Quincy Media) offers creation of Tristitial advertisements.
A Tristitial offers you the unique and
attention-grabbing animation of a rotating billboard, with three different images
alternating in the same space, in a way that provokes the curiosity of the Internet
user. The Tristitial can accomplish three objectives in a single ad: brand messaging,
company or product information, and special promotions. You can also use a Tristitial
to display several product or brand images, humor in stages, or surprises that require
a pause between multiple messages. For more information, please visit
Snap2Eyes.com.
The deadline for new banners is 5 business days prior to launch. Please allow
5 business days for new banners to be posted and 3 business days for current banners
to be rearranged.
Product and Hosting Spotlights are supported across the network, although the specific
sites and placements may vary. These ads are text-based and have good user appeal.
They also have the advantage of being easy to create and tweak to increase the effectiveness
of your ad.
Product Spotlights are limited to advertisers of products and services (including
conventions). Hosting Spotlights are limited to providers of webhosting and related
services. These restrictions ensure that your advertising will be seen by the users
you want to target.
Product and Hosting Spotlights consist of a title (up to 40 characters) and a body
of descriptive text (up to 200 characters) for a total of 240 characters. The title
is automatically a hyperlink; additional words of the body text may also be hyperlinked,
but only one redirect URL is supported per ad.
The goal of Spotlight ads is to make the user curious. Users should want to find
out more rather than being told everything in 240 characters or less. (Even with
much more space, your product or service deserves more review by potential customers
than ANY ad could possibly allow.) Pique their interest with your ad to get the
click-through. Then use your landing page to make the sale.
Tips for making your Spotlight really shine:
- Keep it short. Although you can use up to a total of 240
characters, our most effective Spotlights are much shorter. You want to make
the user want to find out more, not tell him everything there is to know about your
product.
- Highlight your features, not your name. The Spotlights with
higher CTR's do not, in general, include the name of the company. (You can
certainly include the name of your product or company if building brand recognition
is an important goal for your campaign, but graphic ads are often a more effective
way to do so.) In addition to keeping the user curious, it saves some of your
characters to tell users more about what you have to offer.
- Use buzzwords. Users often respond to the words that are
the latest buzz in the industry. “AJAX” and “Atlas”
are good examples; the title is a great place to make these words really pop!
- Connect with the user. Today's internet user is accustomed
to seeing ads and traditional ad copy. By using a phrase (such
as “Need quality reports now?” or “Award-Winning .NET hosting”),
you can connect with the user on a much more personal level. These unexpected
phrases are also much more likely to grab the user's attention than some traditional
ad copy.
- But wait, there’s more! Let the user know that, in
addition to the great features you have highlighted, your product or service has
a lot more to offer. Even if you can't tell them all the great reasons why
your product is far superior to the competition, you want them to know that you
are unique, so they want to find out more.
- Give them a reason to “Act Now.” Many users will
see the ads on a page, but not click because they have become accustomed to their
presence. Said another way: the ads will always be there, so there is
no reason to investigate a particular ad at this time. Compel the user to
go to your page now by making your offer time-sensitive and by offering a free download
or other reward for immediate action that may not be there if they wait.
- Use your landing page. Your landing page needs to be designed
to engage the user when he arrives, highlighting all of the great features of your
product or service that sets you apart from the competition. The page should be
easy to use and relevant to the ad that was clicked. This is your chance to turn
a lead into a sale - compelling ads can get users to you - but it is your job to
turn these leads into customers.
- Let us help you optimize your copy. We are
happy to work with you to create effective marketing copy that will get your
product or service the attention it deserves. And, because even years
of experience are no match for real-world trials, we are more than happy to modify
the copy throughout the campaign based on the actual response from our users.
Examples of effective Spotlight ads (bold is hyperlinked):
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Flash ads must support clickTags to report the number of clickthroughs. Expand this section for detailed instructions.
Here is what's required:
First, each Flash ad needs a clickable button or graphic. This is required to give people a means to
respond to your ad when they click on it. Most advertisers make the button transparent
and have it cover the entire ad.
Second, the Flash ad must have a clickTAG. This is required in order for us to record that someone
clicked on the ad and then redirect them to the appropriate landing page on your
Web site.
Here's step-by-step how to implement it:
- Open your Flash ad movie and add a new layer at the top of all the other layers in your Flash movie.
Make sure the timeline for your new layer extends the entire length of your movie.
- Go to Insert >> New Symbol.
- In the Symbol Properties dialog box, enter a name for the new graphic
symbol and choose Graphic as the Behavior option. Draw a box the size of your ad movie and
fill it with any color you please.
- Place your graphic symbol onto the layer you created and make sure it covers your entire movie.
- In the Edit Movie mode, select your graphic symbol instance. Then go to the Properties panel
and choose Color: and select Alpha from the dropdown list. Then change the percentage that appears to 0%.
- Choose Window >> Development Panels >> Behaviors
to open the Behaviors panel. Then choose Window >> Development Panels >> Actions to open the Actions panel.
- Make sure the graphic symbol instance created in step 4 is selected. Then go to the Behaviors panel, click the
Add Behavior button and choose Web >> Go To Web Page.
- In the Go to URL dialog box that appears, type the URL of your ad landing page and choose
"_blank" in the open in field.
- After doing that, you'll notice your Actions panel will update to look like the following except that your landing page
will be there instead of lakequincy.com:
- In the blank line under the on(release) { line, copy and paste the
following parameters into the Actions Parameters pane:
if (_root.clickTAG.substr(0,5) == "http:") {
getURL(_root.clickTAG, "_blank");
}
else {
- After the //End Behavior line, copy and paste the
following curly brace into the Actions Parameters pane:
}
After completing steps 10 & 11, your Actions dialog should look like:
(the areas with the red line around them show what you should have pasted)
How this works:
We will dynamically assign a URL for tracking purposes to your Flash file using
the clickTAG you set up. We will embed your Flash file using the HTML <object>
syntax, and will pass our dynamic click tracking URL into your Flash file using
the clickTAG parameter. For example:
someflashad.swf?clickTAG=http://a.lakequincy.com/click?123
When a user clicks on the Flash movie, they will be redirected to our click tracking
URL, which will record the click and redirect the user to the landing page you have
specified for this advertisement.
Testing Your SWF File
If you're unsure whether your Flash ad works correctly and supports the clickTAG parameter, you can
follow these simple steps to test it:
- TESTING THE LANDING PAGE LINK:
In Flash, with your ad movie open, go to Control >> Test Movie. Click anywhere
on your ad and your Web browser should open to your landing page.
- TESTING THE clickTAG LINK:
Close out of Flash and locate the SWF file in your file system or on your web server.
- Open the SWF file using Internet Explorer (or another Flash-enabled browser). Verify
that you see the movie in the browser, and that your address bar shows the file
name, ending with .swf.
- Add the following to the Address Bar, after .swf: "?clickTAG=http://lakequincy.com/".
- Press Enter - the page should reload with the movie just as before.
- Mouse over the movie and click on it. You should be redirected to http://lakequincy.com/
(in a new window if the _blank target was specified as in the above instructions).
Troubleshooting
- If you find yourself at another URL, the most likely reason is that this Flash movie
has that URL hard coded into it. We will not be able to track clicks using this
movie.
- If clicking on the movie does nothing, the Flash movie most likely does not have
a clickable button or graphic embedded in it. We will not be able to use this movie as-is since
no one will be able to click on it to reach your destination URL.