Ω
mega Advertising Solutions
Home
 
About Us
 
FAQ
 
 

Article Top
Why Ads Seem to fail on High Content sites (low CTR)

Beracah Yankama
Director of StudentsReview (StudentsReview.com)
Founder of OmegaAds

Monday, Feb 05, 2007

I'm sure you've noticed it by now.  Your super awesome content site with a billion visitors per day is pulling in less than you hoped on ads.  So much less in fact, that you'd have to wait at least 5 days to save up enough money for a McDonalds meal.  Why are the CPM rates so low?, you find yourself asking.  Even Google Adsense, which boasts the best revenue on content sites seems to be performing abysmally.  Well, we've got the answer.  Tis the CTR (click through rate).  Yeah yeah, you knew that. 

CONTENT IS KING

Well, not really.  At least not to the advertisers.  What essentially happens is this: The user comes to your site, with your awesome content, and they find themselves engaged.  Great!  That was what you were hoping for anyway.  Unfortunately though, they become so engaged that they become blind to *everything* else on your page, except those tools and links that will get them farther.  They stay there, on your site, attentively reading pages and pages until, for whatever reason, they become tired.  They've found what they need, and they click CLOSE.  What happened here???  Your site showed tons of ads to a visitor, but they paid NO ATTENTION to them.  Once they were done, they left — clicked an ad?  no.  why? 

The Problem

The answer lies in the 3 different visitor phases:
1.  Directed Search - Looking for information that meets their needs.  They just came to your website, and are looking around. 
2.  Found it, reading intently/learning. 
3.  Done, satisfied, leaving.

In state one, the visitor is likely to click on anything and everything that may seem to answer their questions.  In the case of those “google spam” websites, and their huge CTR, there is nothing on the page, so the visitor turns to ADS, thinking they might answer the question.  Sites like this turn in PHENOMENAL click through rates, not because they are valuable, but because visitors are struggling to find what they are looking for.

In state two, they found your content.  Your content is great.  In fact, it is so great that it answers their questions... after all, that is why your site is popular... People don't need ads.  The only ads here that could get them to click are DISTRACTING ones. 

In state three, they are done and are on their way out.  The only ads here that they are interested in are ones NOT ABOUT your content.  After all, you just solved their problem.

As a content site, you can see that state 2 is practically immutable as far as visitor attention, and the content matching of state 3 is less successful.  Since you are a content site, you have no chance in state 1.  People are going for your content.

- can't go back to an ad once an article is done being read. 
- ads are no longer in position for them to see - through over-optimization, ads have nothing to do with content. 

But Wait!  CPM!

In recent times network ad allocation has become CTR based.  Because the advertiser has no idea about “your site”, the only metric for its value to him is through the CTR!  Even if your content site is running only CPM ads, the ad networks actively monitor the number of clicks that each ad gets, and “optimizes” the highest paying ads to show on sites that get the most clicks.  This means that those spammer, low content sites that deliver high ctr will have an absurd “relevancy” associated with them, and since you in competition with them for CPM ads in addition to CPC ads, you lose out.

It is unfortunate as far as the branding advertiser campaign goes — they are looking for sites with a strong brand presence and repeat visitors to associate their campaign with, not random frustrated clickers.

The problem is even worse for content sites, since even if people are willing to click on an ad, they won't do it until they are done with the content, and by then, the ad is gone, to be replaced with another more useless one.

Back in the old days, a branding campaign meant that the advertiser bought all of the inventory on a site, so that they could both be associated with the site's brand, AND so that there was persistence of ad.  A person could go back.  Now with over-optimization, that is impossible.  (driving ctr per ad even lower)

So you see, “ctr” has erroneously become the metric for “interest”, and even it affects your CPM earnings. 

Solution - sort of

Well, there really isn't a solution, unless you are planning on deleting most of your content and replacing it with ads.  What you can do however is think about where visitors are entering and leaving your page.  If you can put ads in their physical mouse and eye pathway, then you can increase your ctr rates.

1.  Find where your visitors leave your page and put an ad there.  For forums, this means at the bottom of the page usually, or after a REALLY LONG post.  People get tired after reading, and leave.

2.  Monetize your content in another way.  The ad networks will not sell you as any more than another line item in their category bucket, meaning they don't know anything about your brand and visitors.  Even if the networks tell them, it is not like they are going to read everything about each advertiser directly.

This means, selling your content on CD, as membership, etc.  Or try selling advertising yourself.

Author:
Beracah Yankama
Director of StudentsReview (StudentsReview.com)
Founder of OmegaAds
 

Lose the headache of managing your ad network and all those varying prices!  Do it automatically: save time, earn more money, and regain lost earnings.

 

Ω Ad Scheduler
Allow your visitors to quickly schedule and place ads on your site themselves! 

 

Read some of what we and others have learned about ad optimizing, chaining, and server optimization!  And stuff. 
 

© 2005-2007 Omega Advertising & Beracah Yankama