This article is referring to the legacy version of your directory. Click here to learn how to manage banner ads for the new directory. If you are not familiar with this development then click here for an overview of the new directory.
Banner Ads are specifically-sized images that can be displayed and tracked for views and clicks on different pages of your website. Creating a "Banner Ad" record in MC Trade involves selecting or uploading an image, indicating where on your website and within the page it should display, and setting a date range for when the banner should be displayed.
Banner Name and Size Specifications
Banner names refer to the position of the banner on your pages. The standard names will be one of the following:
Leaderboard - 970x90px (usually at the top or bottom of a page)
MediumRectangle - 300x250px (usually found in a sidebar or a corner of the page)
Square1- 300x250px (same as medium rectangle, only used as additional banner for directory)
Square2- 300x250px (same as medium rectangle, only used as additional banner for directory)
Square3- 300x250px (same as medium rectangle, only used as additional banner for directory)
mediumrectangle_mobile - 300px by 250px (rectangle ad used for display on mobile devices - typically at top of page)
**Note that your website may use a custom size - you can right-click on any existing banner ad on your site and choose Properties (or "Image Info" depending on your browser) to see the size of your banner.
There are times when the banner names may be different. The banner name can be found in the script set up for the banner when implemented. If that is not accessible, the following procedure can be used to find the banner name (and/or keyword).
- Right-click on the page and view the page source code - for Edge/Internet Explorer choose "View source," for Firefox/Chrome choose "View Page Source."
- Hit the Ctrl + F keys (this will open a search box) and type: adkeyword
- The page will display the first banner ad on the page and provide you with the keyword and the bannername. Any additional banner ads will be below this and you can select to "Find Next" or scroll through the page. An example for the homepage would be:
-- adkeyword:Home | BannerName: Leaderboard | ExcludeBannerNames:mobile_leaderboard -->
Also note that the image file size should not exceed 500kb. in total size.
Adding a Banner Ad to MC Trade
Once the banner image has been created and you have it available either in MC Trade or locally on your computer/device, follow these steps to place the ad on your site:
- Go to Communication > Banner Ads.
- You can click Edit in the Actions dropdown in any row in the grid of existing banners, or click Add a Banner Ad in the upper right corner to create a new banner.
- A window with a Profile search will open. While a profile is not required for a banner, it's strongly recommended that you link a banner to a profile to more easily track the clicks/views on that banner. Type any part of the profile name into the search, then click Select to choose that profile.
- The following are the fields in the data grid the need to be filled out to make the banner ad operate:
- Keyword: Every web page on your site has a keyword, such as 'Home' or 'VisitorInfo,' etc. You may have received a sitemap listing your keywords when your site was created; otherwise, you can right-click in your browser on the page you want to display the banner, choose View Source, and then hit Ctrl-F to open your 'find' function. Search for 'adkeyword' and you will see the keyword for that page displayed. Enter it into this cell. If you leave this blank, the banner will appear on all pages of your site. Click here for more detailed instructions on finding the keyword for a page.
- Banner Name: This determines which ad location on the site the banner will display in (leaderboard, sidebanner, etc.).
- Alternate Text: This is text that will appear if the visitor to the site has their images turned off or if the visitor is visually impaired, their reader software will read this text. BEST PRACTICE: At least place the name of the banner sponsor here so that they will get recognition in the above cases.
- Display Start Date: The first date that the banner ad will appear.
- Display End Date: The last date the ad will appear.
- Image URL: The Image URL is the address where you want the banner ad is stored. You can use the option to "Select an image in the system" if you want to upload a new image or select previously uploaded web content (click the search icon to see all options), OR you can copy/paste the URL of the banner directly into the "Image URL" field.
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Navigate URL: The Navigate URL is the website or page that will be visited when the banner is clicked on by a visitor. An example of a URL would be: http://www.newenergy.com/
- Click Save.
- Finally, check the pages that have been programmed for the banner to appear and review the banner.