FAQs

What exactly am I buying?
Targeted online advertising across some of the most popular and up-and-coming African American targeted websites

Is this advertising program right for my site?
If you are looking for a way to reach a broad range of African American shoppers then YES. Our small business program gives you a large amount of exposure on a broad or targeted network of websites that have a high composition of African American and urban interest visitors.

These pricing seems great…how are you able to charge these kind of rates?
The answer is simple….scale, time, and availability.  You are basically buying into unsold inventory (ie anything left over and not purchased by major advertisers).

Out rate cards are structured based on four tiers: level of targeting, length of campaign, availability, and volume of scale.  This program is structured to maximize the volume of ads that you receive over broad marketing periods which last for month long periods thus making our pricing structure much more flexible.   Your ads will be running across a broad range of high quality African American targeted websites who have partnered with us to fill their unsold inventory.  We primarily work with large Fortune 1000 advertisers who take up the bulk of ads in our network.  Typically some of these websites will still have inventory left over that needs to be filled given their growing website traffic.  We created this program over a decade ago to be a win/win for both site publishers and small businesses.  Don’t miss out on this incredible offer

Where will my ads appear?
Your ads will appear upon availability (and approval) in key spaces designated for advertising on some of the most popular and up-and-coming African American/Urban Interest targeted websites online.  Example sites include UrbanMecca.com, EURWeb.com, BrownSista.com, and S2SMagazine.com to name only a few.  All ads are served by default to consumers in the United States only (worldwide targeting is available if you need it).

Can I target a single site?
A few of the larger websites associated with our service are available for direct remant targeting. If you’ve been working with a sales person at our company this is already set for you

My product/service is localized.  Can you target my ads only to my local area?
Yes we can target by city, state, or DMA (even custom regions)

Is this program better than a keyword campaign or doing search engine marketing (SEM)?

Our program has many advantages over a standard keyword campaign….

- Keyword campaigns on major search engines are not ethnically skewed: Our program is unmatched for small business merchants that need to put their products in the faces of African American web surfers. Every site that your ad appears on has a very high African American composition.

- Websites typically place ads from SEO programs severely low on their pages: Most web publishers don’t place a high amount of importance on their participation in SEO programs…especially in the black space where ads are dominated by hundreds of low cost bidders.  In our program, your ads appear in great performance areas on each site in our network.  If we discover a site showing our ads in low performance areas or displaying our ads improperly…we don’t point your (or any) campaigns there…period.

- Keyword campaigns can be very costly with little return: Keyword campaigns can get extremely competitive depending on the search terms that you are bidding on. Furthermore, many clicks that you receive through keyword campaigns may mean visits but not qualified visits. Clicks could come from competitors monitoring the competition or even from just people surfing around with no intent to buy or interact with your products (commonly called junk users). With our program you don’t have to worry about money wasted with click programs. We don’t place any per click pricing through this program.

- Pay Per Click Fraud can be rampant: PPC fraud essentially breaks down into two primary areas….Competitor fraud, in which competitors run programs that repeatedly click on competing advertisers’ sponsored links in order to deplete their daily ad budget, or affiliate fraud, in which affiliates utilize similar programs that repeatedly click on a link in order to increase their compensation. Either way, this phenomenon does not help the small business advertiser. It can substantially waste your marketing investment. Please note that we aren’t saying don’t participate in PPC campaigns. We just want to make you smarter about your marketing decisions.

How many visits will I receive through your program? Will this increase my sales?
Our click through rates have been very high for all of our customers through this program.  The amount of clicks your banner receives will depend on how well your banner is designed and the nature of your product or service offering.

In terms of sales expectations, think about your product and the nature of your business or offering. Everyone that visits our site may not be in the mode to purchase your product offering and some sales cycles may be longer on more expensive products, specialized items, or products that sometimes require a second opinion (such as art, furniture, and accents). The most important thing to remember is that you are building a brand through this program. When people see your visual ad – they remember it…they come back to it…they are exposed to it again and again on subsequent visits. It’s called “top of mind” awareness and can help tremendously when they do fall in the mode of wanting to purchase and item like yours or if they need to refer someone to your website.

Could you explain to me how exactly does this program work in detail? (understanding remnant inventory)
When it comes to ad inventory, most media outlets such as radio, television, and websites are usually never in a sell-out situation and frequently have openings in which they have unsold (or remnant) inventory. This is especially prevalent on internet sites but can also be seen in televison and radio especially. When an opportunity to show an ad arises and there is no paid advertiser…outlets will run what’s called a ‘house ad’ (marketing themselves) or public service announcement (PSA).  Most of the time when you hear or see commercials from charitable organizations (like Partnership for a Drug Free America) – it’s very likely that the spot was unsold and that outlet has reserved those opportunities to dedicate to these types of advertisements.

This is where our program kicks in: you can buy into our program which helps to fill unsold space on major websites.

With this understanding, now you can see that what we’ve done is very special. We care about the small business owner. Despite our tremendous growth, we still consider ourselves a small business.

What If I don’t have a banner?

We can create ads for you at a nominal rate.  Rates for banner design are $50.00 per banner flat fee.  Contact us first via phone or email if you need a banner created.

Can I design my own banners?

Absolutely, you can submit up to 3 banners across each of these sizes (1 per size)…

728×90
468×60
300×250
160×600
120×90

Please note that all submitted banners are subject to approval.

General Notes:
- All banners should be less than 40k in size

Are there any contracts?
No, you can opt out at anytime. You won’t be billed anymore once you cancel your advertising subscription. There are no refunds after your account cycles.

I don’t see my ad as much on some sites in your network..why?
There will be occasions where a very large advertiser will appear on certain websites in our network. These advertisers are paying a higher premium to secure a certain amount of exposure across a very defined period of time to deliver a very date driven message. When this happens, your larger ad units may appear less on certain websites. Remember you’re buying into unsold inventory…so everything depends on availability in terms of what sites you appear on.

How will I know how much traffic that I’m getting?
You’ll get access to a specialized account in our ad server where you can monitor your impressions and click activity.  You could also check your referral traffic report for traffic coming from our member websites (or ad server).