OpenAds CTR

[T Pat]

Hey I'm curious what kind of Banner Click Through Rate do you guys get?
I seem to be stuck at one percent, will it ever get better?

[Preacher]

Uh, that seems really low to me.

I am an OpenAds fiend, but I don't really run normal banners at my sites anymore, but I can tell you what my old design used to see. Keep in mind this is a linklist with a horizontal banner up top and bottom.

Regular horizontal banners
I'd be really happy with a 15% CTR which I only saw with a handful of sites
most would be around 9-12%
if they fell below 6% and stayed there, I killed the banner

Buttons
I had 120x60 buttons floated on the left hand side, and for whatever reason I always had a higher CTR with those than the regular horizontal banners.

I think a lot of this is going to depend on how niched that traffic is, and for a categorized linklist, I'd imagine higher CTR's than a general blog listing or something, but the total number of clicks might be a lot less.

I'm glad you brought this up because I always wondered how I compared hsitorically to others.

[ronnie]

Usually when I go through all my ads, on rare occasion, huge job, I normally get an overall above 10% for all ads. Some are higher, some lower. I've had some over 30% and of course some under 10%.

As preacher mentioned, normal sized banners suck and have sucked for a number of years now, yet people still use them. Course few people even track their ads anyways, which makes no sense.

Odd or bigger sized ads usually pull more for me.

I also agree with preacher, the niche can make a difference. Narrow/tight/small niches seem to be easier to get higher click rates. Makes sense, mainstream like Lesbians, ect can have alot of saturation.

[spacemanspiff]

I don't use OpenAds, but I assume it's somewhat like PhpAdsNew, which is what I use. I set up a couple of different tests to see what worked best.

The first was a set of ads with a traditional banner, 468 x 80 or so, with text above and below the banner. Usually just a single line. CTRs were usually below 10%, with most being around 8.

The second was what I called a "review" ad. I usually used a screen shot of the sponsor's site, scaled down to around 250px wide, with an "honest" review of the site next to it. Lots of text. CTR on those were all above 15%, with most being around 20.

The best one I ever did was on a blowjob page where I used 5 animated blowjob gifs in a table row, with some juicy text underneath. That one was off the charts. I think the motion in the gifs helped draw attention to the ad. Can't say for sure though.

[Preacher]

Originally Posted by spacemanspiff

I don't use OpenAds, but I assume it's somewhat like PhpAdsNew, which is what I use.

OpenAds is just the new name for PHPAdsNew.

[ronnie]

Originally Posted by spacemanspiff

I don't use OpenAds, but I assume it's somewhat like PhpAdsNew, which is what I use. I set up a couple of different tests to see what worked best.

The first was a set of ads with a traditional banner, 468 x 80 or so, with text above and below the banner. Usually just a single line. CTRs were usually below 10%, with most being around 8.

The second was what I called a "review" ad. I usually used a screen shot of the sponsor's site, scaled down to around 250px wide, with an "honest" review of the site next to it. Lots of text. CTR on those were all above 15%, with most being around 20.

The best one I ever did was on a blowjob page where I used 5 animated blowjob gifs in a table row, with some juicy text underneath. That one was off the charts. I think the motion in the gifs helped draw attention to the ad. Can't say for sure though.

Yep like preacher said. I'm with you, or a little behind, I am using what was just barely "new". I've never switched because that would be so much work and so many ads to put in. One of these days maybe.

I had a similar ad as yours with a bunch of animated gifs in a row and ya, had a great click through. Not sure I even had text.

[Preacher]

Originally Posted by ronnie

Yep like preacher said. I'm with you, or a little behind, I am using what was just barely "new". I've never switched because that would be so much work and so many ads to put in. One of these days maybe....

The upgrades should be seemless so your existing ads should remain in tact. I'd definitely recommend a DB back-up though before jumping several versions, because you never know what's going to happen.

[ronnie]

Originally Posted by Preacher

The upgrades should be seemless so your existing ads should remain in tact. I'd definitely recommend a DB back-up though before jumping several versions, because you never know what's going to happen.

You don't understand how old my version is..lol

Think It's like 1.9.3, it was when the software just turned to phpads"new". It's that old. Old enough that I couldn't even upgrade when phpadsnew hit like 2.0. So for me it's a complete re-do, start completely from scratch. Hence the reason I haven't upgraded. Guess I got stuck when the new group took over from the original creators. I have been using it when it was just phpads. The new group took over and changed it too much.

In reality, it still works fine and does the job. I know I am missing some stats, but right now, not worth my time. I have 543 clients and 2022 ads, it would probably be a week to start it all over again. I've thought about it from time to time.

[tickler]

Originally Posted by spacemanspiff

I think the motion in the gifs helped draw attention to the ad. Can't say for sure though.

I just read somewhere on one of the mainstream boards that flash ads apparently pull almost 9x the CTR as regular banners. Plus, they can be a better resolution/crisper images, better animation than .GIF banners.

Greenie, or anybody got any stats on this in the adult world.

Maybe some of the LL/TGP/MPG owners might start considering let us use flash banners more. I have a request in to one sponsor for some custom flash banners for a PPC campaign where I am allowed to use flash banners so I can test it out.

[Vivaldi]

I'm checking my CTR on monthly bases ... so far number are always between 10-15% (that's for my LL's only)
of course it all depends on niches that are popular at moment, at leat in my case, but I did noticed that, on avegrage, every 3 months CTR drops down in certain categorie and as soon as I change banners with low performance it goes back up again.
and .gif banners perform better fo me

[Vivaldi]

oh ... forgot to mention that it's CTR for LL's
blog add's can't seam to pass 5% :-( but I guess it's just me

[T Pat]

Originally Posted by Vivaldi

oh ... forgot to mention that it's CTR for LL's
blog add's can't seam to pass 5% :-( but I guess it's just me

Interesting, not sure what it means but it makes me feel better about my CTR

[spacemanspiff]

Maybe some of the LL/TGP/MPG owners might start considering let us use flash banners more.

I didn't know that was a problem.

[ronnie]

Originally Posted by Vivaldi

oh ... forgot to mention that it's CTR for LL's
blog add's can't seam to pass 5% :-( but I guess it's just me

Maybe your blogs are to general or mainstream heavy promoted niches? I know I have some niches that just don't get the clicks not matter what the ad is. Do you have ads/links in your posts? Do you track them? I was just thinking, you could put a complete blog post in phpads, don't remember if there was a limit. That might be interesting.

Hey, pat yourself on the back, you ahead of 99% of the webmaster crowd it seems. They just throw up ads, no clue how they are performing. Or they complain they are not making sales and don't know why..

One other big problem, least to me, sponsors not providing good ads in the first place.

[ArtWilliams]

For a horizontal regular size banner "above the fold", my best is 1.024%. The worst is .468%. I just use the banners to pretty up the site. I really don't expect much from them.

[ArtWilliams]

Originally Posted by ronnie

One other big problem, least to me, sponsors not providing good ads in the first place.

I think the way to make banners work and get a good CTR is to make your own. Sadly, that is number 837 on my list of things to do.

[Vivaldi]

Maybe your blogs are to general or mainstream heavy promoted niches?

As much as I hate to say it they are (gay, lesbian, black etc.) so yap, that might be the problem.
As for blog post I don't track those but it's appealing idea for witch, unfortunately, right now I don't have the time.
But in an overall picture if You have enough traffic CTR doesn’t mean shit.

[dunc]

Do you use OpenAds on freesites or AVS sites or just on blogs and tgps?

[ronnie]

Originally Posted by dunc

Do you use OpenAds on freesites or AVS sites or just on blogs and tgps?

I've used it on all. Should be used everywhere you have ads.

[AndyS]

I used to use phpads but could never get over how much code you had to add. How are the newer versions, can you just call the banner image and link to the campaign?

[ronnie]

Maybe because I am on an older version, but it's little code. There are two requires at the top of the page and then simple call code(s) on the page.

A friend is using the newest I believe and from what I saw, ya there was alot of code. Odd, seems they are going backwards..lol

Well, guess it can do so much, needs the code.

[AndyS]

Thanks Ronnie, that was the impression I got from their site that it needed a fare chunk of code which seems massive overkill for what I want.

[ronnie]

Better than not tracking ads at all...

[Mr Spock]

Originally Posted by ronnie

I've used it on all. Should be used everywhere you have ads.

I didn't know that you could use openads on freesites submitted to LL. I must definitely look into to it - how idiot proof is it to install?

[dunc]

Its very easy to install... well I did it