Forum Moderators: skibum
Most of us believe that Joe Shmoe web surfer ignores 99% of all banner ads. We feel sites that use the banner ad revenue model don't work, and users avoid the sites with banners or don't generate clicks and revenue.
A quick google for "banner ad statistics" brings up a bunch of reports from 2001 and earlier.
Does anyone have more recent stats about banner ads?
How many banner ads are getting clicked these days? How many companies are paying for banner ads and purchasing space? What kind of sales are they seeing from their banner ads? What's the renewal rate for banner advertisers?
Mostly, I need hard data to avert changing to a banner-ad revenue model. I have a feeling our target market (more mom-and-pop than corporate America) will have zero interest in buying ads, and even worse, our users would resent the addition of the invasive graphics to their content.
What's everyone experiencing with this? Are banner ads as much of a dead-end as I think they are?
Thanks!
[poynterextra.org...]
some good info on ads here - mostly where to place them and that text ads are better than banner ads...
-kpaul
KPaul, those are very interesting results. Thanks for the links.
Anyone have any more numbers-based stats? Percentage of click-through or percentage of renewals would be most interesting.
-- Lax
What about the advertiser who buy banner ads? Do they renew their contracts after the initial term?
What's the demographics of banner-ad purchasers? Mostly online etailers and other websites, or are they offline brick-and-mortar stores and service providers?
I just can't find the stats anywhere for this, so I'm asking the WebmasterWorld community if they have any data.
Thanks again! I'm enjoying these details =)
AWA and others have stated the overall (system-wide average) CTR of AdSense is around 2% - or 20 per 1,000 visitors.
But let's be honest. This is cutting edge stuff. If you approach a dentist in Des Moines who's been running a graphical "banner" ad in his local Yellow Pages, it's a relatively easy sell to get him to repeat that idea on a local website under the Dentist category.
In a circumstance like this, a selling a banner is the easiest route. It may or may not perform to his/her expectations. Practically guaranteed it wouldn't perform as well as a text link for click-through (though you'd have to test it to be sure). There is, however, a "branding" element to a banner.
Branding & banner campaigns are still "the thing" for Fortune 500 and other companies. They have different goals: they're repeating the same visual look and feel across a 100 different mediums, from the side of trucks to print ads to TV to a website. Click-through isn't really the point; as a part of a larger whole they become "more effective". You may have ignored the ad in all the other mediums, but then "notice it" when you saw it on the website, or vice versa. This works more subconsciously than anything.
This might work on a local level, if a visitor is returning time and time again to a website. Let's say the Dentist's banner is at the top of a local directory about dentists. Perhaps you see his/her ad in the local Yellow Pages, then in the newspaper, and now online. In this case, it may be more effective than a text link, because you immediately make a visual connection between them all, and think "hey, this guy is more professional than the others".
To summarize:
- Evidence reveals that on average, banners don't receive anywhere near as effective a click-through rate as Text Ads (particularly contextual text ads)
- BUT it may be an "easier sale" to customers who are either used to thinking about things in a print or other off-line format, or are engaged in local or national branding campaigns.
In other words, it depends on what your users are looking for - branding or effective click-throughs.
Hunter
