Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Web Hosting : About ad banners

[Duster]

I've been frequenting alt.www.webmaster lately, as well as nanae and other anti-spam newsgroups that I've followed for months. In one ot them there was a discussion on proper ways to advertise a site. It was mentioned that ad banners are one of the worst and least productive methods.

I'm not interested in them myself and don't care for them. I won;t have them even though I've been approached by a few companies who would like to have one (or more). I'm just curious if anyone who has them makes much money from them. I'm just trying to determine if some sites may clutter their site needlessly for just a few dollars.

I'd appreciate hearing real experiences from anyone who has them.

[BC]

Duster,

I once contracted web design work for a certain client (who shall remain nameless since they have gone out of business now ), which had enough venture capital money to purchase ad banner usage on some well known Australian sites. I initially advised them against the uselessness of such a campaign (pointing to several Net news reports on falling click-through rates) but I shut up after they decided to proceed anyway.

Three months later I followed up on how they were going, and they reported a click-through rate of 0.02%. They didn't exactly have the most interesting banner (a static banner with a collage, but that's about it) and they had spent tens of thousands of dollars for a wonderful click-through rate of 2 in 10,000 impressions.

Not exactly surprising that they folded up soon after.

[akashik]

I'm just wondering about the other side of the coin. I have a client right now who wishes to use rotating banner systems on their site. They haven't asked yet but I have a feeling they might ask advice on charge rates to have other people's banners on their site. It's a pretty big thing for them apparently and wish to use it as a revenue source, which I am VERY happy about as it meant I got to install cgi instead of a 'quickie' fix and point them at everyone.net et.al.

Anyone got a link to a site with a 'general rate', or have a plan of action regarding this? I have a maintainance rate to think of so naturally the site has to make more either through that, or signups, than I'll be charging (which probably won't be too cheap considering the work involved) How much is TOO much?

Greg Moore
http://www.akashik.net

[Deb Suran]

I repeat my post on AWW:

See our ad rates page at http://www.mimf.com/ads.htm. We are a small, special interest website and serve a specific niche market: musical instrument builders. Those businesses that market to instrument makers feel that they're spending their money wisely because that's their entire audience at our website. Our members feel good about buying from those businesses that support our forum, and we have several suppliers who are also participants on our interactive discussion forum, answering questions in their area of expertise and enhancing their reputations as a result. Advertising currently brings in 22% of our income. Be sure to take a look around our forum to see how ads are used (start at http://www.mimf.com/cgi-bin/WebX), and also see our homepage, first link in my signature. Our stats for last week: 6,448 page views per day; 5,412 distinct hosts served for the week. Hope this helps.

Deb Suran, sysop
Musical Instrument Makers Forum http://www.mimf.com
Forumhosts: How to Put Your Forum on the Web http://www.forumhosts.com
Finding a Web Host http://www.forumhosts.com/hosts.htm

{edited as per Chicken. Damn -- didn't realize this does the same thing as UBB}

[Edited by Deb Suran on 09-05-2000 at 08:52 PM]

[Chicken]

Deb, edit your post and give your URL's a space between those "." or ")" - it may help to get people there who miss that there is an extra "." at the end of the URL.

[akashik]

Deb,

Thanks for that - gives me food for thought. It's much the same conditions actually - forums, products etc so it was very useful

Greg Moore
http://www.akashik.net

[Learner]

akashik,

ad banner advertising on the internet, if done at random, will prove to be pretty much worthless. that's because the internet is just too large a world community with an extremely diverse interests.

but if spent on wisely, such as what Deb was talking about above, it will prove to be advantageous.

in short, focussed or targetted advertising is the name of the game... its all a question of wisely spending ad revenue for squeezing out the most of every dollar spent on advertising.

the same logic also applies to most large scale advertising media... it's what we advertising and marketing guys call NICHE ADVERTISING... which statistics indicate is generally successful.

Learner

[Duster]

Thanks folks, Den and Learner in particular. It makes sense that targeted banners would do much better than general ones. Now I understand why some of the sites I visit have them. It may be dollars rather than pennies that they earn.

[Chicken]

I'd also note Duster, that there is a worth (so to speak) in banners that don't seem to do much in at least name recognition. You can use it to promote familiarity with your name. To me, that is about the only thing they do. Yeah, I am sure some people click them, but I don't.

I would think that someone is xTIMES more likely to click on a link/offer/etc. once they have seen the name at least once, and I think this is what banner advertising does. Just like billboards, which rarely cause the driver to slow down, let alone pull over and remotely link the laptop in the trunk to log onto the advertised website. But I would be more likely to check em out if I ran across them again on the web.

Of course targetted banners make sense, but that even then, you are giving people a preview into what your site is/what you offer. Most of them won't check the site, but even so, you still got your brief message across. Make a decent banner (I am sure we've all seen banners that ummmm, suck).

Banners like punch the monkey seem to get everyone talking. Not in a good way, but talking is talking, and I am sure that banner helped them.

Just some thoughts... it is really too early for me to focus.

[Learner]

Originally posted by Chicken
You can use it to promote familiarity with your name. To me, that is about the only thing they do.

Chicken, you are correct in your assumption. That is another important benefit of banner advertising... especially if random banner advertising is done/exchanged on a large scale (large number of random views).

I would think that someone is xTIMES more likely to click on a link/offer/etc. once they have seen the name at least once...

In advertising parlance, this factor is termed as BRAND RECALL.

Psychologically speaking, it's a basic human trait which makes the average consumer feel safer because he recalls the Brand or Company Name from memory when he is about to purchase a commodity or service from them. This recall makes the average consumer feel "more confident" because he is under the impression that this brand or company has been around for sometime.

Learner

[Speedie]

Just my $0.02 worth...

I run a news/weather/stocks site, and run ads on the site through Commission Junction. I find that text links outperform banners by around 10:1. It seems there's nothing like a couple of sentences when it comes to making people click. Either that or the vast majority of net users are just sick of banners and don't bother to click them!! Probably a combination of the two factors.

Whatever, if you can get someone to host a good quality text link as part of a parapgraph recommending your company, do it.

Incidentally advertising *can* add up to serious earnings, NewsAide.com is practically unpromoted thus far and only has a small readership but I have a nice check for $250 from CJ on its way this month.

Speedie.

[Chicken]

Yep Learner, you got it. You just said it much better than I did (by the way, the time I posted is East Coast time, so 9:30 am was actually 6:30 am for me).

I also agree 1000% with what speedie said. I am much more likely to click a text link (especially if it is accompanied by some sort of useful/informative blurb), than a banner ad. The only time I notice banner ads is when I have seen the same one over and over.

The same rules for convential print advertising pertain to the web to some degree: Make something that jumps out a bit. Do not just throw all your money into ONE week's worth of advertising, repetition is what makes us remember things. And do not change the ad, as this essentially means you are starting all over again.

[Learner]

Yes... I myself am of the same opinion. Attractive "text links" are, as Speedie correctly pointed out, a much better option.

Guess the reason for this is that after all surfers enter a website to receive some form of content... and the web is still currently heavily slanting todays textual content... maybe tomorrow when high-bandwidth is common, text links will become less attractive.

But, my gut feeling is that I think attractive text links will always be a good way to advertise, even if tomorrows internet becomes increasingly more multimedia in nature.

Duster, as usual, this is another very pertinent and useful thread you have started here. It would also be a good idea to take this thread into some of the other popular web hosting forums. This is a subject that would interest and benefit almost everybody who intends to get websites on the net to earn money or recognition in some way or the other.

Learner

[Edited by Learner on 09-06-2000 at 11:32 PM]

[Duster]

Thanks, Learner. On the separate subject of text links, I know they can be very effective. On my site about scuba diving, I have all the links categorized and in different pages. Many carry a description of what the site is, or where the business is located. I know some businesses and other sites that have benefitted greatly from the exposure. I believe if you make information easy to find (categorization sure helps) and descriptive where needed, visitors are more likely to click on those links.