"Eric Meyer" <meyer@newslink.org> wrote:
<i>&gt;I've done a minor pre-study on the effectiveness of on-line</i>
<i>&gt;advertising and am eager for reactions or data from similar efforts.&gt;</i>
<i>&gt;Basically, I found that the referral (or clickthrough) rate for 12</i>
<i>&gt;on-line ads studied ranged from 1.40% to 0.36%. In other words, only</i>
<i>&gt;about 1 in 100 people who saw each of the on-line ads followed that</i>
<i>&gt;ad to the site of the advertiser. Such rates struck me as being low,</i>
<i>&gt;so I quickly checked 12 other ads. The rates for them were virutally</i>
<i>&gt;the same.</i>
We're getting a 20-30% click-thru rate on our banners.
The catch -- we've been testing for many months. Plus, we
found that the product we sell at our site (THINKfast-
the Brain-game, our only source of income) was not a
good draw. So we created something generically close --
IQ &amp; other 3 minute on-line brainpower tests -- &amp; discovered
how to position it replete with graphics (the banner) so that
it did draw -- big time.
<i>&gt;If the ads in question had been billed at a $15 cost per thousand,</i>
<i>&gt;the typical advertiser would have paid around 68 cents per referral</i>
<i>&gt;to their site. This strikes me as high, particularly when you</i>
<i>&gt;consider that variance in referral rates may be accounted for more by</i>
<i>&gt;error than by any content, design or positioning factors.</i>
Yes, 68 cents is pretty high BUT it does depend on one
major factor -- revenues per visitor.
We've tested copy (w/o graphics) where changing a few words,
such as *quick* vs *3 minute*, represented up to a order of
magnitiude difference in response!
Again, the key to this is testing, re-testing &amp; being patient.
In the final analysis, &gt;content, design &amp; positioning&lt;
are the ONLY elements from which your click stream is created.
The stronger they are the less your ad is subject to chance.
Bottom line --
* Find something unusually alluring, informing,
or entertaining to offer at your site
(it could be your product but doesn't have to be)
* Test the copy (positioning) until you see a big jump
in response (often 5 -10 times normal)
* Wrap graphix around it - creating the banner- but
make sure you test it too (strange things
happen in this game- take nothing for granted)
Obviously testing means at AND AWAY from your site.
* Go to the thousands of medium sized sites hungry for
ad rev$ &amp; work out a click thru rate that you
know leaves you a margin for error + a profit.
You must know your Revenue per visitor (as well as
know how to tweek it). This forms a ratio of Revenue
vs Cost per visitor = RPV/CPV. It's taken us 6 months to get
our ratio up from &lt;1 to &gt;5.
Your RPV is dependent upon soooooo many factors that
this is not the time to get into it BUT if by popular
demand the group cares to hear about our learning curve
feel free to let me know &amp; I'll see if I can coax Glenn
to put up with one more of my meandering pontifications!
Thanks for listening.
~josh reynolds .......................
\ had a brain check up lately? \
\ come to the BrainTainment Center \
\ if you're smart you'll love it \
\ &lt;<a href="<a href="http://world.brain.com">http://world.brain.com</a>">http://world.brain.com</a>&gt; \
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