Forum Moderators: skibum
I'm trying to see if the site I'm working with is hosed. Our untargeted 468x60 banner ads (aka, Burst ROS, Tribal Fusion, etc.) have been getting about 0.2 - 1.2% CTR lately, depending on the network. However, the supposedly targeted ads that we've sold ourselves typically get anywhere from 0.15% to 0.6% CTR and only up to 1% on really highly targeted pages.
I always assumed that targeted ads should get a much higher CTR than untargeted, but how much more? My feeling is that our readers aren't who we think they are since the targeted CTR is so low.
What are getting for targeting and untargeted banners? Other thoughts?
(Thanks in advance!)
I've never really thought about this before but maybe targetted banners get a lower CTR in general because people who visit your sites already know about those sites. Since it's targetted to these sorts of people they probably already know about a lot of what is our there in your sites category.
But, the key to it all is how they convert. Since the surfer who does click on the targetted banner knows what they are surfing to, they probably have a higher propensity to become a paying customer. This could be BS but definitely a possibility.
To me, we try t have ads that are related to our readership, rather than directly targeted, and your reason that others may know the products/servcies already is a good one.
So rather than selling other websites in our area or books, reports and magazines about inetrnational business (our readership are people interested in interntional business and we offer those things on some of our sites anyway), we try to sell related things on the site - such as high class hotels, FF airline programs, conferences, and anything that suits the *PROFILE* of a person interested in inetrnational business rather than the *CONTENT INTERESTS* of such a person. Of course knowing your reader is an absolute must to create the profile. We do this by holding occassional "competitions" with a book prize for example, which requires them to fill in a bit of information about themselves.
True targeted ads that work on a site may get less clicks but more sales results for the advertisers and more branding and reputation transfer from the publisher to the advertiser and that is what they pay more for. People can remember what they see without clicking and some people are more valuable in certain niches than others so their attention is at a premium.
That's about right for the untargeted networks like Burst (which are 100% untargeted traffic to my way of thinking).
Running ads for competing websites can usually run upwards of 2 to 3%. I've found that well placed text ad boxes can out perform most banners.
