Member Avatar for Advertiserbay

Having monitored a great deal of different priced banner adverts on various types of sites I think I have come to the conclusion that buying expensive banner ads on the larger sites does not pay-off. I can honestly say that I have paid the same price on a new small site for a full year and got more out of it than I do paying the same rate on a very relevant and higher traffic site with a bigger ad.

Has anyone had any major success when spending a large sum of cash on a banner on a popular website?

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This thread hits the key tension: banners can be useful, but too often they underdeliver if bought as a blunt instrument. Contributors like , , , and raised measurement, creative and targeting issues. Below is a compact, practical playbook to test banner spend, measure real impact, and decide when it is worth scaling.

Start with a clear objective and KPIs. If the goal is awareness, measure reach and viewable CPM (vCPM) or brand lift. If it is direct response, treat banners like any conversion channel: track CPA, post-click conversion rate and assisted conversions. Run small, randomized tests first rather than committing long contracts.

A simple test workflow:

  1. Define the metric you care about (CPA target, incremental conversions, or reach).
  2. Run a controlled experiment (geo or audience holdout) so you measure incremental lift, not just correlated conversions.
  3. Tag each placement with unique UTM parameters or promo codes and capture assisted conversions in analytics. Use viewability and fraud reports from the publisher or a verification vendor.
  4. Rotate creatives, apply frequency caps, and run the test long enough to stabilize conversion numbers.

Helpful math (replace variables with your observed CTR and post-click conversion rate):

conv_per_impression = CTR * post_click_conv_rate
allowed_CPM = target_CPA * conv_per_impression * 1000
CPA_from_CPM = CPM / (conv_per_impression * 1000)

Operational tips: avoid legacy Flash creatives; use HTML5 and fast-loading assets. Match banner messaging tightly to the landing page. Ask publishers for a short trial, viewability stats, audience demos, and a performance clause if possible. Treat banners as part of a funnel—combine with retargeting or search to capture intent—and be skeptical of pure view-through credit without a control.

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Member Avatar for webmaven

I can tell you that on my site, I have a few banner ads and several text ads. Almost invariably, the commissions come from the text ads. I've noticed, too, on the client sites I do adwords for, that there are very few clicks on banners, compared to the text ads.

Just my take...

Member Avatar for jay 11

That's an interesting take, David - one i'm sure a lot of people have experienced. Display ads naturally convert less. That still doesn't mean we shouldn't pay for them. Generally, i would say that larger, more popular sites get a broader audience but in your case, you are saying that the larger site is very relevant yet you still convert less. Perhaps a couple of minor tweaks to your landing page(s) may be in order? Maybe you could do some A/B testing to see which pages perform best? Have you thought about offering a special discount or promotion to the audience of that particular site?

What are you thoughts on this?

Member Avatar for Advertiserbay

Thanks for the reply Jay, but I actually measure my response rate by creating a duplicated home page on a separate URL for each banner I have in different places e.g. if I had a banner on here I would have a landing page that was something like

I suppose this means that the only other thing which could be improved would be the design of my banner but I have some pretty good flash banners being used (or so I think) :)

Member Avatar for jbreinlinger

From an advertiser perspective, I've found traditional banner ads to be fairly useless. The CTR is way too low and the cost per conversion is way too high. But, behavioral targeting does work. Much more effective.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Behavioral_targeting

-Josh
{snip}

Edited by jay 11 because: removed fake signature - please add a real sig in the DaniWeb Control Panel
Member Avatar for jay 11

Thanks for the reply Jay, but I actually measure my response rate by creating a duplicated home page on a separate URL for each banner I have in different places e.g. if I had a banner on here I would have a landing page that was something like

Nice!

I suppose this means that the only other thing which could be improved would be the design of my banner but I have some pretty good flash banners being used (or so I think) :)

Or it could mean that the site itself just doesn't have the qualified traffic you thought it would or hoped for. Nothing you can do but cut your losses and maybe voice your experience to the site owner or ad rep. They might have some telling info in their rebuttal (if any) on why the campaign didn't meet expectations - but at least you gave it a shot and know to pay less next time or not at all. :)

Member Avatar for InsightsDigital

As an analyst, I have noticed that the performance of banner advertising varies on the following attributes:
1. Is it rich or flat banner ad?
Rich banner ads are more interactive and stirs a higher CTR.
2. Is the creative speaking with the visitor?
Just remember that it also depends on the size of the banner ad. The box usually performs the lowest.

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