NONE: Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Value of Test Banners?
Re: ONLINE-ADS>> Value of Test Banners?
Herman Tumurcuoglu (hermant_at_microtec.net)
Wed, 15 Oct 1997 11:00:14 -0400
Ali Partovi <apartovi_at_linkexchange.com> wrote:
>I should stress that click-thru is a poor measure of performance.
>A finely-targeted banner may actually have a lower click-through rate,
>but results in more valuable visitors. It's often more effective
>to use banners for branding (after all, 95%- 99% of your money is
>spent on the viewers who didn't click!).
I have always advocated this point and could not agree more. I think
branding on the Internet is something that will emerge with time. While I
don't like a cost per sale model (unless we have a lot of creative control
and a favorable share of the profit) I don't see anything wrong in giving
the customer a fair run at the "service" we sell. But I think the point
about not spoiling the potential customer is a good one and makes a lot of
sense. So a small trial with certain guidelines, sounds like a good
compromise to me.
Ali Partovi <apartovi_at_linkexchange.com> wrote:
>2 Banners ---- 50,000 Impressions ---- $38.00 CPM ---- $1,900 total.
>
>In comparison, a ratecard test buy on LinkExchange would be:
>
>2 Banners ---- 200,000 Impressions ---- $10.00 CPM ---- $2,000 total.
>
>It's unclear to me what's more "pleasing" about one service or the
>other
>
>In general, one shouldn't place much weight on comparisons like the
>one I make above: it's comparing apples and oranges.
Also correct. It is like comparing apples with oranges. But you seem to be
confused about what's is "more pleasing about one service or the other".
So let me refresh your memory about the case involving one of the sites I
run and many other member sites where there was (and continued to be)
improper reporting and allegations of LE banners leading and pointing from
adult sites. In which case our company terminated membership with LE and
left behind a ton of banners. I don't want to interpret the actions of a
group of people including our company because I am not the only person
involved and this is not the proper venue, but when non-paying members
refuse to use accumulated banners or remove them then it must be a rather
hard proposition to pay $2,000.
I think that a great deal (but not all) of the discussions pertaining to
click-thru and targeting are academic. I would be more concerned about
branding then a slight differential in click trough. As Ali points out, the
quality of the exposure is very important for long term strategy and
click-thru is a poor measure of performance. Most advertisers would not
mind between a 2% and a 2.3% click-rate if they knew that their ads would
appear on quality sites and not appear on adult sites for example (a few
bad exposures is far more damaging then the .3%). I have not used
DoubleClick's service but I bet this is what is more "appealing" about that
service. They can round up a number of sites and assure you that these are
the brand name sites you will be showcased on. They can give you reporting
and say 6% of your ads were on AltaVista and 18% on GTE and this was the
differential in performance etc.. Those sites do not change from one day to
another, you know what you got, not what you think you got.
Which bring us to my question? What kind of reporting specs (beyond
displays and click trough) should be given during trial runs? Anyone with
experience on this?
Herman Tumurcuoglu
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