I've been experimenting with banner advertising in multiple programs for some time, and have come to the realization that they NEVER work. Stick to search marketing or whatever you use, but why anyone would waste space with affiliate banners on their sites is beyond me. Case in point: I have a blog that offers links to watch NFL games online. I use Justin.tv to promote the blog and get roughly 12,000 visitors every weekend. Above the fold I put the Adsense ads that are tightly geared toward watching games online. In the right column there are banner ads for Fantasy Football, sports apparel and much more from CJ, Azoogle, etc. 12,000 views. over 300 Adsense clicks for 50 bucks or so........ 2 banner clicks and no conversions. You do the math. I removed the banners for good, as they are a distraction and I definitely don't want people looking in their direction, as they probably cost me clicks on Google ads already. Your thoughts and experiences?
It's a bit rich to say that something doesn't work because you can't make it work for yourself. I've made more than enough money from banner space media buys to believe that it works if done correctly. You have to factor in the demographics, the creatives, what is required for the conversion, and just about a thousand other factors under the sun. If you're having that much more success with plain Adsense links, then stick to that. But you can't really say this is a legit case study of banners not working.
I was hoping somebody would chime in to say they have had success with banners. Can you share anything that points us in a positive direction? My traffic is tightly targeted and simply doesn't convert....??? Thousands of visitors have no desire to click the banners.
It's well known that people are banner blind and text links convert better. Have you thought about putting well targeted affiliate text links in your sidebar, since Adsense seems to work on your site?
In your case it's because people want to watch the NFL game online, they often connect right before the game begins and while it is starting, I know it from soccer matchs experience. Those people want to watch the NFL game online now, they don't want to buy anything CJ has to offer. They know live streaming exist like on justin.tv they're just not web savvy enough to just find it by themselves and have to get lost on pages like yours (and mine I admit) before they can find a live stream. Those are not the best people to show CJ banners to. And I'm in the same position as yourself, I too am more based on adsense for earnings but I'm interested by tales of affiliate marketers success stories, but simply never put the work or trained to get the required skills in order to be successfull with CJ. So I have displayed banners alongside with adsense and for about the same reports than you. I'm sure banners can be succesful, but in the context of a page geared towards people interested in one of the products. For instance, if you make a page reviewing some web hosting package and have banners about web hosting packages, that could work!
Hi This is really interesting and open to some debate. I can see how one side feels this way and yet others feel another. Personally, it's very hard to say. I think I'm not going to take a stand on this yet. Curious to see what others feel. rainbos
Just because your visitors are there to watch football doesn't mean they'll be interested in football-related ads. Any that are interested in fantasy football are probably already in a league or two and aren't up for joining any more. And most would probably do specific searches for deals on any fangear they might want, or buy from places they've bought from before, so the sports apparel ads have a very small chance of getting clicks. The only exceptions to the above points would be pre-season where the fantasy football offers may get more clicks. And if you could show team-specific ads for the apparel that are targetted to the visitor's favorite teams and featured specials or discounts. If you had access to team-specific ads (or got permission to create your own), you could create a poll that asked your visitors to vote for their favotite team and cookie them with that info for future targeting. You also should think about what your demographic may be interested in other than football, like dating, car/truck/motorcycle stuff, or wife/girlfriend gifts around the holidays, etc. The key is to try lots of things to see what works. Try rotating in things like auto insurance, home loans, credit cards, health-related, etc. Remember, the number one attention grabber for your demographic is an attractive woman. If the offer you are testing/using doesn't include creatives with a nice looking woman, try to get permission to create your own. As far as placements, just look at the stats/heatmap that google gives for adsense placements. The horizontal and verticle banners always get a very small ctr and usually require very high traffic to make them profitable; especially when getting paid for a sale/conversion rather than cpc/cpm. Try to use one of the square/rectangle formats above the fold (250x250, 300x250, 336x280). If that's where you have your adsense, try rotating them. Also, look at addition ways to monetize your blog. If you're getting decent traffic, put up some "advertise here" links and sell the space directly to advertisers. Set up your own store, you can do this with a cj feed or amazon. Do "deal of the day" type posts to push them to fangear, collectibles/memorabilia, etc., There are lots of easy ways to monetize you just have to keep trying. edit: If the links to watch the games online take your visitors away from your blog, I would change those links to include target="_blank" so they don't "leave" your blog, that way, after the game, your blog is still in front of them.
I think that only the brand builders truely benefit from banners, the click thru rates for such adverts is appallingly low. Naturally, there are always exceptions. Text links and product catalogue items do better for me
I'd say that in general text links work better for me, but I have banners that work well...but its under a different circumstance than the one your dealing with. For your situation....I think people are just trying to find the game stream...not shop, or worry about fantasy football. They want the game up because they don't have cable (I'm not making fun...I actually stream all my sports in too) So from my own experience trying to find Bengals and Lakers game streams...when I'm looking for one...I'm not paying attention to banners that have nothing to do with watching the game online. I would forget about running ads that have nothing to do with streaming the game right then and just run google and other cpc ads. Good luck, looks like you've got a good site, and I've probably come across it over the years! Good Luck!
There are some really, really smart people here on DP that "get it". That's why I never hesitate to ask the question- even if it is in the form of "Why it isn't working" type. Thank you all for making it real and pointing out what we sometimes miss in the grand scheme of chaos. Very helpful advice.
I think it depends more on the niche and your target audience. For dating, banners do get the occasional click/conversion but search forms and photos get way more interest.
I would just remove the banners from that site and focus on increasing traffic to the site so that the adsense income will increase.