The true value of website banner advertising

[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?

[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...

[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?

[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 advertiserbay.co.uk/daniweb

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) :)

[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}

[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 advertiserbay.co.uk/daniweb

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. :)

[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.