Creating and Managing Banner Ads for Directory and Other Components

Introduction

Banner ads are images that can appear on any webpage of the MC Trade website including the directory, eCommerce store, news articles, and coupon list. Banner ads can link to a URL and, when clicked, referral data is recorded to the connected profile.

In order to display, banner ads must have specific keywords, banner names, and image sizes.

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Types of Banners

There are three types of banners:

• leaderboard: This is a wide banner that appears at the top or bottom of the page. 

• • The banner name must be leaderboard.
  • The size of the image must be 970px (wide) x 90px (high).

• square1 or square2: This is a smaller banner that appears in the directory search, results, and/or details.

• • The banner name must be square1 or square2.
  • The size of the image will be 300px x 250px (width x height).

Adjust your image to this size or, if you upload a larger image, it needs to have an aspect ratio of 6:5 to prevent distortion (divide its width by height and the result must be 1.2 which is 6:5). If not, then you will need to re-size your image before uploading.

• • If you have square1 and square2, it will place the images side-by-side or on top of one another.

Each of these image files should not exceed 500kb in total file size.

You may add more than one banner called leaderboard and it will cycle through the leaderboard images every 10 seconds. This is also true of the square1 and square2 images.

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Adding a Banner Ad

1. Click on the Communication menu and then Banner Ads.

2. Click Add a Banner Ad (top right).
3. A window with open and ask for a profile ID or name. While it is not required, it is strongly recommended that you link a banner to a profile to easily track the clicks/views of that banner. After typing the ID or name, a list of matches will appear. Click Select to choose the profile.
4. Fill out the following fields:
   • Keyword: If you leave this blank, it will display this banner on all applicable pages. Otherwise, you can enter one or more keywords (comma separated) to display the banner on specific pages.
     • directory will display it on all of the directory pages.
     • eCommerce will display it on the results view of the eCommerce area.
     • News will display it on the search and detail pages of the News Article area.
     • Coupon will display it on the search and detail pages of the Coupon area.
   • Banner name: This determines what type of banner and location. You will enter leaderboard, square1 or square2. Click here for more information.
   • Image alt text: This is text that will appear if the visitor is visually impaired or has their images turned off. Their reader software will read this text. The best practice is to place the name of the banner sponsor here so that they will get recognition.

In the directory, keywords can be attached to specific profiles, but can also be attached to a listing category or sub-category. For example, if you have a listing category called Automotive, and put automotive as the keyword, when you use the directory's Category option to search for anyone in the Automotive category, that banner ad will appear on the results page.

4. continued
   • Start date: This is the first date that the banner ad will appear. If you want this to appear right now then the start date needs to be prior to today's date.
   • End date: This is the last date that the banner ad will appear. If you want this to appear right now then the end date needs to be after today's date.
   • Select an image in the system: Click the magnifying glass and then choose from previously uploaded web content or upload a new image. This will automatically fill out the Image URL.
   • Image URL: Instead of selecting an image in the system, you may enter a URL of the image.
   • Navigate to this URL when clicked: If the visitor clicks on the banner, they will go to this URL.

5. Click Save.
6. Go to the page(s) that you defined through your keyword(s) and confirm that the banner appears.

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Editing a Banner Ad

1. Click on the Communication menu and then Banner Ads.
2. Find the banner you wish to edit. There is a search bar at the top to search by keyword, profile name, and/or the banner's active date range. Also, if you have a long list of banners, you may have multiple pages at the bottom.
3. Next to the banner, click Actions, and Edit.

4. Make the desired changes and click Save.

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Deleting a Banner Ad

Exercise caution because this operation cannot be undone.

1. Click on the Communication menu and then Banner Ads.
2. Find the banner you wish to delete. There is a search bar at the top to search by keyword, profile name, and/or the banner's active date range. Also, if you have a long list of banners, you may have multiple pages at the bottom.
3. Next to the banner, click Actions, and Delete.

4. Click Delete to confirm.

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Generating Embed Code

After adding a banner ad to MC Trade, you may want to then add it to a third-party website. The embed code for your banner ad can be generated using our Banner Ad Widget generator. Once you copy and paste that code, it will track the views/clicks of that banner in your member's profile.

1. Click on the Communication menu and then Banner Ads.
2. Click Generate Banner Embed Code (top right).
3. Click on the Banner Name drop down and choose the banner.
4. Enter any desired keywords (use a comma as a separator for more than one).
5. Click Generate Embed Code.
6. Click Copy Embed Code and Close.

With the embed code copied to your clipboard, you can now paste that to the desired page(s) in your third-party website CMS. Any banners you create that have the banner name and keyword(s) you entered into your widget will then display on the page. 

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