Placing your ads on online classified sites is a fantastic way to generate targeted traffic – if you set it up correctly.

The first thing to be aware of is you need to place your ads in the newsletters and websites the people in your target market visit on a regular basis.  It does you no good to place your ads where the readers don’t care about what you’re offering.

Set up your advertisements so that you’re not trying to sell a product or service from the ad.  Your sales letters or sales team members should do your selling for you.  Instead, place ads with the explicit intent to drive traffic to your website.

Of course, the only way to get the response you want is to write a powerful ad.  The components of a great ad are:

•    A compelling headline that highlights the most important benefit the reader will gain if they find out what you have to offer.  The name of your product or gift isn’t necessarily compelling.  Use the headline to grab their attention and tell them you’re going to solve their pain.

•    Then make them an offer they’d be crazy to refuse.  One great way to accomplish this is to offer a free report or free e-course in your ad.  Be sure you’re offering something that appeals to everyone in your target market.

•    Lastly, tell them what they need to do in order to get their gift.  Use a direct command.  For example, if you want them to visit a website, explicitly state, “click this link to get your free gift.”

Classified ads give you a very limited space to make a big statement, so keep your ads short and simple.  Be very clear in your language as to what the reader will get and how they go about getting it.

Next, test your ads as inexpensively as possible.  Research the best e-zines and classified advertising sites and find those that have a good circulation or a high traffic ranking at a reasonable price.  Then, once your ad is getting your positive results, you can ramp up your advertising and publish it all over the place.

One thing to keep in mind is that not all newsletters and websites will give you the same results, so keep track of where your visitors are coming from and what kind of conversion you get from those visitors.

If your ads aren’t working in one location but they’re doing fine in others, just remove that ad.  You’ll have to decide if the problem is with the ad or if that publisher simply isn’t reaching your intended audience.

On-line classified advertising can bring a flood of traffic to your web pages.  The key is to make sure you’re putting your ads in front of the right audience.