Re: Generating Higher Yields

From: Chris Brandlon <cbrandlon_at_directivity.com>
Date: Fri 14 Jan 2000 11:44:29 -0800

FREDERICK HORNBERGER WROTE:
> We have an employment site that generates over 50,000
> page views a day, but consistently delivers a low
> click-through yield for banner ads that are not
> employment related.
>
> What are some ideas to improve the yield to capture
> mainstream advertisers? Are there other options we can
> offer advertisers to create a revenue stream besides
> traditional banner advertising?

It is not surprising that employment-related ads on
your jobs site are performing, while run-of-site,
untargeted ads are not. If you want to appeal to
advertisers who are not offering employment-related
services, you need to help them craft messages that
appeal to your users. If the ads aren't relevant to
your site visitors, nothing will work to improve CTR,
at least not in meaningful ways.

One idea is to develop alternate advertising strategies
like sponsorships and transactional (as opposed to
click-through) banners. Shifting the basis for your ad
deals away from conventional metrics could help reframe
the value your site offers to your best advertisers,
offsetting the revenue lost from second-tier clients
who aren't getting the results they seek.

On the other hand, you could adjust your rates downward
to enhance advertiser ROI, and attract/retain
advertisers that way. Not a very appealing option.

More important than developing new advertising
strategies would be to start building relationships
with your site visitors. Implementing a
permission-granted email component, where you trade
value-rich content for user data, could lead to all
kinds of creative ad targeting opportunities. This is
probably going to be the best way to optimize lifetime
customer value and maximize ad revenues over time.

Chris Brandlon
Strategic Director

Directivity www.directivity.com
The Interactive Marketing Communications Agency
cbrandlon_at_directivity.com 877/233-7332





Received on Fri Jan 14 2000 - 13:44:29 CST