Web banners

[Wongdoe]

When you guys surf the web, do you notice them? Do you ever click on them??

I ask bc i am planning to launch an online store and have the opportunity to advertise on a specific site. But my concern is that people don;t actually click on the link and go - or even notice the ad.

I don;t want to waste too much money on the advertising if it is ineffective.

My plan is to advertise on the site as well as on google - so it is not my only avenue for advertising.

Thanks for the input!

[matdwyer]

CTR (click through ratio) varries between 0.01% and say 8%. Are you paying per click or per month? Whats the traffic on that site? How much are you paying? How much is your google ad cost per click (CPC)? How relevant is this site to yours?

Answer these and we can help more :-)

[cdnNick]

If you buy a PPC (pay-per-click) ad then you won't waste any money on the people who don't look at ads.

I still look at them and sometimes I notice an ad and click on it. It's a crapshoot though. From my own advertising experience I have found text ads work better then banners.

If you are looking to advertise on google don't forget about yahoo and msn. I have one site that generates all it's income from yahoo search traffic and it's 1/2 the cost per click then google.

[Wongdoe]

CTR (click through ratio) varries between 0.01% and say 8%. Are you paying per click or per month? Whats the traffic on that site? How much are you paying? How much is your google ad cost per click (CPC)? How relevant is this site to yours?

It is a package deal - about $2000 from now til march. THey claim to have 2500 unique members a day, low rotation (600,000 impressions during the time span) and it is on a forum that is the main target market. However, my thinking is that most people will spend up until mid Dec, so basically, my focus is from now til mid dec to capture sales.

As for the google ad (and yahoo stuff), i haven;t really developed the key words and stuff yet, but i was hoping to budget around $200 / mth (too little???)

[ullyeus]

Don't ask for opinions, ask for facts.

[brunes]

When you guys surf the web, do you notice them? Do you ever click on them??

I ask bc i am planning to launch an online store and have the opportunity to advertise on a specific site. But my concern is that people don;t actually click on the link and go - or even notice the ad.

I don;t want to waste too much money on the advertising if it is ineffective.

My plan is to advertise on the site as well as on google - so it is not my only avenue for advertising.

Thanks for the input!

Text based ads are much more effective. Both research and anectodal evidence supports this - it is because you have a habit of reading text on a page, it is hard to tune them out. not only that but they are harder to logically block with ad blocking software without messing up page flow.

Even if they don't CLICK on them you are more likely to have your ad at least READ if it is a text link than an image.

Just an example - I don't know a single person in my office who does not surf with AdBlock enabled. I never even see banner ads. But I always see Google text ads. I even occasionally click on them if they are especially intriguing. I actually KNOW HOW to block the Google ads if I wanted to, but they don't bother me so I don't bother either.

[matdwyer]

It is a package deal - about $2000 from now til march. THey claim to have 2500 unique members a day, low rotation (600,000 impressions during the time span) and it is on a forum that is the main target market. However, my thinking is that most people will spend up until mid Dec, so basically, my focus is from now til mid dec to capture sales.

As for the google ad (and yahoo stuff), i haven;t really developed the key words and stuff yet, but i was hoping to budget around $200 / mth (too little???)

If we base on 150 days (again you'll need an exact number) then that gives you approximately 375 000 uniques.

At a low of 0.01% CTR then that brings you 375 clicks

At a high of say 5% (which would be VERY high for a forum, in my opinion) - 18 750 clicks

This means at your low you will pay 5.33 a click, and at a high of about $0.10

This is where it is important for you to check out the google adwords estimator for you keywords...

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

Lets say google adwords gives you a 1-3 position at $1.00/click.

Then, in that case, the $2000 bucks you would spend on that, would bring in 2000 people - highly targeted (and likely looking to buy).

Again you need to check what your own conversion rate is on your site (do more than 25% of people who come to your site buy? What is your average profit? Is it worth spending $1-5 to get the client?)

Also maybe try contacting some other advertisers on that site and seeing if they have positive encounters so far.

Anyway, post anymore info and we can help you more.

[imie]

To answer you question, i don't click on banners, even if they are flashing :)

Text ads are much more effective. With that money, you could do so much more...

Imie (http://www.ishopathome.ca)

[baz5]

If we base on 150 days (again you'll need an exact number) then that gives you approximately 375 000 uniques.



The problem is, from the sounds of it, it sounds like a forum, or membership site.
He says 'members', which makes me think a good number of these daily visitors are returning members, so you aren't really hittin ga large audience. I don't hav eadblcok installed since I upgraded to FF3, dont' think it was quite ready when FF3 was, and I don't even notice any ads. You kinda become immune to them, whether they are blocked or not.

[matdwyer]

The problem is, from the sounds of it, it sounds like a forum, or membership site.
He says 'members', which makes me think a good number of these daily visitors are returning members, so you aren't really hittin ga large audience. I don't hav eadblcok installed since I upgraded to FF3, dont' think it was quite ready when FF3 was, and I don't even notice any ads. You kinda become immune to them, whether they are blocked or not.

My understanding of uniques are in fact separate IPs (or at least cookie based, so everytime a user clears their cookies they would be another unique).

So if its 2500 users a day, then thats terrible. 2500 uniques is a different story, so maybe its worth while to look into their statistics and verify them (google analytic data maybe?)

I actually enjoy looking at ads - and click on them often. Must be the marketing side of me though.

[baz5]

I meant returning members daily, not multiple times per day.
And I figure it tracks IPs for 24hrs then is reset.
So if 1,000 forum members come back every day, that will be 1,000 unique visitors every day.

[matdwyer]

I meant returning members daily, not multiple times per day.
And I figure it tracks IPs for 24hrs then is reset.
So if 1,000 forum members come back every day, that will be 1,000 unique visitors every day.

Well we are just speculating about how they refer to uniques - a session could be 30 minutes or a week or a month, again its something he should check into prior.