Forum Moderators: martinibuster
I sold some space on my site for 4 figures in January. In fact, it isn't even an "ad" in the traditional sense -- it's two text links in my header area. 4 figures for two sentences? Yes please.
Yes, the code-and-forget aspect is one that is often severely undervalued in this forum whem people are whinging about G's cut of the money!
Rgds
Damon
It's the only way to fly.
I've found Adsense gets a much better CTR than the few direct ads I've sold, mainly I think because of ad blindness
You must be talking about banners then as I'm selling almost exclusively text ads at a flat rate, no CPC nonsense, I get paid no matter what and the click-thrus are phenomenal.
My problem now with selling text ads is, how do you do them, and not make them look like Adsense? (Since that would be against Adsense TOS.) Or do you not do them on the same page as Adsense?
saw an article the other day that predicted greater growth for traditional display ads than for search-related ads
You believe everything you read?
The banners perform so poorly I was planning on yanking them off altogether so I don't care how much money people pump into them, if people don't click it's a waste of my time.
You believe everything you read?
That study merely confirms what I (and my rep firm) have been seeing lately.
The banners perform so poorly I was planning on yanking them off altogether so I don't care how much money people pump into them, if people don't click it's a waste of my time.
You seem to assume that all display ads are direct-response ads. Many, if not most, aren't. Display ads are a great way to build brand awareness or to implant a message. That's why, for example, one major airline has run display ads on my site to promote its transatlantic service but has also used AdSense for specific, time-sensitive offers.
Text ads, and direct-response advertising in general, represent a fairly small niche within the advertising industry. Google obviously knows that, which is why Google has been testing "image ads" (a.k.a. display ads), rich-media ads, and other formats that can or could be delivered through the AdSense network.
Yes, the code-and-forget aspect is one that is often severely undervalued in this forum whem people are whinging about G's cut of the money!
That's true, but if you play your cards right, selling ads directly can be "get paid and forget." There's no need to worry about clickthroughs, positioning, targeting, and all of the other stuff that gets to be a pain with AdSense. You receive your money, fulfill your end of the bargain, and you're all done. Getting paid upfront is certainly the way to go.
How do you find these rep firms to sell ad space for you?
If your site is big enough to direct advertising, rep firms will probably find you and contact you (maybe via your whois information, or if you have a "contact me" page on your site). Kontera for example contacted me directly, so I'll be trying out their service in the near future.
It's important to point out that rep firms don't really qualify as "direct advertising" though -- they'll take a big chunk of the pie, then pay you. I think the people I signed a contract for took 45%, but since they never bothered to contact me after I signed the contract, I guess it's their loss.
I've found Adsense gets a much better CTR than the few direct ads I've sold, mainly I think because of ad blindness.
Following up on IncrediBill's post...
In my experience, CTR doesn't even matter when it comes to direct selling. You'll negotiate a specific position for the ad, and you'll get paid accordingly. That's it. Since you will also negotiate how much you as the publisher receive for giving up the space on your site, you don't need to concern yourself with what sort of performance they get out of their advertisement. The position of the ad has a big influence on its CTR, so the position of the ad should be specified in the contract. In theory, if the company knows what they're doing, the ad should easily justify how much they paid for it.
So while the company may have paid me 4 figures for only two sentences, they clearly felt they'll earn more than they paid for the ad. So, do I care about the CTR of the ad? No.
My problem now with selling text ads is, how do you do them, and not make them look like Adsense? (Since that would be against Adsense TOS.) Or do you not do them on the same page as Adsense?
I contacted Google with this very question. Here's what they said:
I understand you would like some clarification on our competing ads
policy. We do allow affiliate or limited-text links, but we do not allow
text-based ads that either directly mimic or attempt to be associated with
Google ads. Basically, if you were to sell links on your site we would ask
that they not be placed and created in such a way that a user would think
that they are part of one of our link units. It's certainly possible to
create a link like "blah website" that wouldn't be considered a mimicking ad.Our intent with this policy is to be as fair to our advertisers as
possible and to maintain the integrity of the AdWords and AdSense
programs. This means limiting the other types of ads that AdSense
publishers display along with our ads.
I then followed up this email with a screenshot and link to my site. I requested they take a look and made sure it was OK. They responded with this:
I can confirm that your site is currently compliant with our program
policies and that the links beneath our 468x60 ad unit do not violate our
competing ads and services policy.
So I think if you have a question about what does/doesn't violate the AdSense TOS, your best bet would be to simply ask Google. It's certainly better that you ask if you have any doubts, rather than get nailed later.
