Search Listings Outscore Banner

and Title Advertisements 2 to 1

[Mike_Mackin]

A study conducted in January 2001 by NPD Group, a research group specializing in consumer purchasing and behavior, tested the impact of search listings, banner ads, and tiles across a variety of sites (both branded and unbranded) to determine which was most effective. In every situation, search listings came out on top -- especially the first three positions.

[goto.com...]
[npd.com...]

[tedster]

I just finished a one year study of traffic for a client of mine. They are listed in a highly targeted directory for their product line, and they also run a banner ad on the directory site. The directory listing generates more than twice the traffic of the banner ad.

People can really tune out most ads.

[agerhart]

>>>People can really tune out most ads.>>>>

I know I do......

[Drastic]

I have thought this for some time, no small part in why I found WebmasterWorld many months ago.

Banner ads, affiliate links, etc. draw semi-interested clicks. A lot of times, just curiosity seekers. But, someone actively searching for something, taking time to use an engine and keywords they think will bring up their desired results, are much more likey to have genuine interest in clicking on a SERP and taking action on the site.

[bigjohnt]

I've done an unscientific, random poll of web users, and without exeception, each has said they never click on banners. Most said they don't even see them anymore. The most popular "exception" is the venerable "shock the monkey". In each case they indicated the shock the monkey banner, they all realized this was a "trick" to get them to go somewhere other than where they wanted to go. Some tried it, most did not.
I personally think of the standard top of the page banners as part of the browser. In all of my years of being online (I don't know - 6, 7 years - early gopher searching does not count!)I've only clicked on a banner about a dozen times, and most of those times, I was "fooled".
No offesne to thsoe who sell banner sapce, but the web is a differnt media. Almost totally a pull market. People know what they are looking for, and impulse buying is almost non-existent. Branding effects are diminished as people "block out" the banners, popups, etc. This is a direct marketing medium, initialized by the user, not vice versa.

[Mike_Mackin]

I surf with muliple windows open.
If I come to a page with "shock the monkey", I close the window. I will not wait for that page to load.

[skibum]

At this copany we do banner advertising/media placement/SEO. Banners perform the worst. Very well targeted banners have gotten up to about 4% click throughs, with non targeted bottoming out somewhere in the 0.05% range. All things being equal (and they never really are) people who arrive by clicking on banners view less pages of the site than those that arrive via text links.

There can be a banner and a text link, one right after the other, and the text link will consistently generate much higher quality traffic and much higher conversion rates for those that arrive via the text.

Lots of companies will spend many thousands of dollars on banner ads, in-data banners (banner that looks like text), and other placements, and get more (2x) traffic from seach engines w/o really embarking on much of an SEO campaign.