Web Hosting Talk : Web Hosting Main Forums : Running a Web Hosting Business : Ad question for hosting companies

[Lonny]

When advertising on a showcase for (for example) $100 - how many click throughs do you expect?

I know it's a matter of sign ups but let's forget that aspect for a second

Thank you very much

Looking forward hearing from you,

[DomiNET.net]

minimum 200

[James Cross]

I think it would depend on the product being advertised. Budget hosting packages attract the most clicks than say managed hosting services, simply because there are more people looking for that type of product.

[Lonny]

Yes, James I understand that, but the question is how much per click from a showcase is enough?

[James Cross]

That would still depend on the product being promoted. A host getting 10 clicks from a managed hosting spotlight per month and converting 1 customer would be better off than a host getting 100 clicks and converting 10 budget packages. So it really depends on the package being promoted. If you look at host search you will see they charge double the amount for a dedicated spotlight. That isnt because it gets double the clicks.

Likewise overture has something like 600,000 searches per month on the term web hosting and only 14,000 on the term dedicated server, yet they are getting over double the rate per click on the dedicated server term.

Its all about the service being promoted. So its not possible to give a broad brush approach to spotlights in general.

[Walter]

Compare it to CPC search engines and you will see what people are willing to pay for. For $100 I would expect a least 100 clicks.

[James Cross]

OK compared them at overture where if you were the top result $100 would get you 12 clicks or the bottom of the page would get you 74 clicks.

http://www.overture.com/d/search/;$s...g&did=173&tm=1

And compared it on findwhat where if you were at the top of the results it would get you 64 clicks at the top of the page or 243 at the bottom of the page.

http://www.findwhat.com/results.asp?...MT=Web+Hosting

But my point is still that your expected number of clicks depends on what is being sold. You cant expect the same number of dedicated host leads as budget hosting leads for the same amount of money. It cost more money to market more expensive solutions, that goes for the directories as well as the hosts. There simply arnt the same volume of people looking for dedicated hosts as there are ones looking for budget plans.