Man,

There is so much to talk about impressions, but i guess the main thing is 1st Impressions are everything.

When it comes to banners, it must be seen a LOT before a person clicks. Think about this:

How much time do you spend online? (a lot I bet)

How often do you see a banner on a page when you surf? (90% of the pages I bet)

Now for the biggie: How often do YOU click a banner? (not often I bet)

How many times did you have to see that banner before you clicked it?

Frequency (how often it is seen by an individual) as well as a great banner determine how often it gets clicked.

A cool design alone doesnt mean its a good banner -it has to encourage someone to CLICK IT. SO you better have a good offer! PLUS you have to stand out from the crowd.

By the way, any place you buy banners from should be able to give you a report of how many impressions you got, as well as how many CLICKS it got. If they can't -do not bother!

Also, check your own web stats to see how many were referred from that particular site.

Nothing wrong with cpm -but with banners you need a LOT -there is no guarantee it is even seen. (how often have you just ignored the banners on a page)

So if you want good results you should be purchasing in the 100s of thousands. Anything less is pretty much a waste -and thats on a TARGETED site (ie. you sell webmaster tools and its a webmaster site)

If its not on a site specific to your product or services audience then you better get millions. Expect an average of 1-2% clicks -anything more than that and you have a gold mind.

So here is the math - if you buy 100,000 impressions and your cost is $2 cpm. You will have paid only $200 - but expect only about 1000 -2000 people to click it. Now remember that is just a click!

When they get to your site, they might not stay, and they might not buy if they do.

Make sure your site does a good job of converting visitors into buyers, signups or whatever.

Here is how to improve.

Create a landing page, NEVER just send them to your home page. If you do you might as well just send them to someone elses site. You have their interest, but people dont want to spend time figuring out how to find your offer.

Make a page just for your product, say a webmaster tool, designed to sell it, focus on ONE thing. Have your banner redirect to there. This will dramatically improve your results.

When you buy guaranteed traffic do the samething for the landing page, dont send them to your website's home page, but instead a special offer page.

Imagine a shopping mall with 100 stores, and all 100 stores had thier info on one billboard on the road outside. Driving 50 mph, how many people would pay it any attention?

Same thing on the net -they are NOT looking for you, but you want thier attention. So, you must focus on one thing to push or else you are wasting your time. You have about 2 seconds before someone clicks the "[x]" so make sure you have ONE specific offer and its a GOOD offer.

Get their attention first, sell them later.

I hope this helps.