Ads On My Website Don't Seem To Pull - How Can I Rectify This ?
Well, this is a biq question and it really comes down to what you expect the ads to generate in terms of the ratio between visitors and clicks.
It seems that 1% is a very good CTR these days and anything below 0.2% is quite poor. However, if you have a very niche product website with a very high visitor level, there is no reason why advertisers are not going to be happy with 0.2% or even less.
The first thing you have to do is work out what your advertisers are happy with. If your advertiser is selling products worth £3000 or $5500 each then a few clicks per thousand views is probably going to be worth the investment.
It is then your job to go a step further and take a look at the landing page where they are directing people to. Is this page doing a sufficient job in potentially converting the click if it is worth so much to them? This attention to detail shows you care and it is up to you to tell them that it just doesn't stop at the click. Anyway, let's get back to the response levels.
One thing you have to look at is your target market. Don't get too dissapointed in low click through rates if the end product value is high. However, if the advertiser is selling a product worth a few pounds or dollars and they are getting 0.2% then you have to look at your design, ad placement and overall layout of your website.
Your ad placement needs to mingle in and be part of your site - long gone are the days when flashy ads popping up everywhere work well. They did interest us for a while but they only seem to work on very specific consumer sites with massive viewing figures.
Most of the time these general rules work very well.
- Try placing ads within text
- Match the colour and design of the ad with the colour and design of the site
- Make the ads blend in with the surroundings
- Have a subtle call to action in the advert
- Make the ad message clear, short and to the point Do all of these things and you should be on track.
Remember, always test ads in different locations over a one week period and then change the design of the ad in the next rotation to test that too. You can then give this feedback to potential advertisers, as part of your media pack and you can bet they'll love the fact that you have given it any thought at all! Remember, there are masses of articles on this site about generating revenue from websites via advertising.
That is what we do best. Don't forget to sign up for the free ad-sales report and to find out about ARC - our new advertising revenue centre for webmasters and website owners.
Date added: Monday July 21st, 2008
