You have a website that gets a decent amount of traffic and you know business owners could profit from advertising on your site.

The only problem is that you don’t know how to approach businesses or get businesses to advertise on your website. This is a classic problem for people trying to break into the ad business and get businesses to pay for ad space. Have no fear!

This is a problem that can be solved. Usually, all you need to do is make some simple changes to the way you sell ad space on your site.

Show Traffic Numbers

Businesses won’t want to advertise on a site that doesn’t get a lot of traffic, this is pretty intuitive.

Resolve this by showing them how much traffic your site receives on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis.

You might also want to show them how long visitors tend to stay on your site because that tells potential ad space purchasers how engaged your readers are with your content. This will increases the likelihood readers will see the ad and consider clicking on it.

Data is paramount in advertising, smart advertising that is. Any good business owner is looking for a good return on their investment (ROI). If you can prove that there will likely be a high ROI with data then advertising on your site becomes a tough option to turn away from.

Impress with Results

However, it is true that traffic alone will not typically convince businesses to advertise on a site.

You may need to show them more, and prove their ROI will be favorable. You can do this by showing them results from other businesses that have advertised on your site (provided you have previous advertising customers on your site).

Some people can’t help but be convinced by the possibility that they will have the same success as someone else, especially when that other person is a competitor. This is somewhat similar to a testimonial and can be extra convincing if you have numbers to back it up.

Offer a Free Month

Many people trying to get a business to advertise on their site will give business owners one free month.

The advertising business hopes that during that month, they will see positive gains from the ad placement on the site. This usually works when there is a good possibility traffic will click on the ads.

In the mind of a business owner considering ad space on your site this lessens their risk. If there are no positive results after that first month (which is free) then the business owner is happy he/she didn’t lose money. Adding this free month is a great way to increase the comfort level.

Provide a Guarantee

A trial period is great, but some businesses prefer to have a guarantee to fall back on in case they don’t see any ROI. Advertisers have offered a money back guarantee if an ad does not generate a certain amount of traffic or revenue.

This can get the ball rolling if you’re new to the industry.

It can be hard to swallow though when you have to give someone’s money back. Obviously, if you plan on doing this make sure you don’t pick an outrageous figure for your traffic guarantee. Also, if your traffic is not very consistent this would also be a method to steer away from.

Basically, only use this tactic if your website traffic is very predictable and you always have at least X visitors per month, or in certain months you always have X number of visitors.

Negotiate with Businesses

Consumers love discounts. Business owners love making money. When consumers are able to get a discount, they are more likely to buy from a business. K

eep this in mind when you approach businesses. Ask owners if they would be willing to provide consumers a discount code or coupon to use on a purchase if they hear about the business on your site.

You can provide a discount to the business owner as well to offset the money lost with the discounts to the consumers. This is just a smart and simple way to get a business to pay for ad space on your website. And if the business stops running the discount to the consumer but continues running ad space on your site then you simply remove your discount to the business owner.

Offering a discount to consumers and business owners is a good way to entice them to buy ad space initially.

Consider Other Ad Pricing

You have three basic advertising price models you can use:

1. Cost Per Thousand (CPM) – This charges advertisers every time their ad is displayed 1,000 times.
2. Cost Per Click (CPC) – This charges advertisers whenever someone clicks on an ad.
3. Cost Per Action (CPA) – This charges advertisers whenever someone clicks on an ad and then makes a purchase or fills out a form.

Try using this CPM and CPA calculator to help you calculate these costs and ROI for advertising. Also, you’ll want to check out our guide on what you need to know to price ads on your website.

Most advertisers would rather have CPA because it generates revenue or leads, so the ROI is higher.

This is why CPA ads are more costly. Some business owners are not ready to make that financial commitment, which is why they are willing to pay for CPM and CPC. Those ad prices aren’t as high as CPA, but can still bring you in quite a bit of money.

Use One or All of These Methods

You don’t have to choose just one of these ways to get businesses to advertise on your site. You can use all of them, or just some of them.

Usually, as you approach business owners, you’ll start to get a feel for what they really want from you. You’ll realize that it may not be all about the traffic, but more about the results.

You may need to show them that it’s worthwhile to give your site a try. It can be difficult to sell your site, but once you know what to say and show to your prospects, you’ll be selling more ad space than you ever thought was possible. Most important of all, be sure to keep on trying.

If you are sure you want to sell ad space on your site then don’t be discouraged if things don’t go your way at the start. Patience.