I’m trying to figure out what sells best, banners (standard 468x60) or text links.
My own gut feeling is that banners get occassional clicks but at least on gaydemon its the links / text links that sell. Anyone got any proper statistics on it?
I’m trying to figure out a easy way to distinguis between the two, but the way i got it setup on gaydemon its not straight forward to find out. I know exactly how many clicks banners got, and exactly how many clicks a link got. But of course I dont know which one actually made the sale out of the two.
Re: What sells best - Banners or Text Links?
text links! banners get at best 50% of the clicks that text links do for me - and average more like 30%. well, unless they are banners that either have a strong message to click or else have thumbs so surfers think they are clicking for the bigger pic. but of course, those don’t convert.
i test this all the time by using different tracking for banners vs text links.
Re: What sells best - Banners or Text Links?
Its what I’m guessing as well. Less clicks on banners, atleast standard ones.
With Tracking, do you mean campaigns or adding things to the affiliate URLs? I just never do that, its party lazyness and part having so many advertisers that doing anything slightly different always means a huge amount of work.
[quote=basschick;5257]text links! banners get at best 50% of the clicks that text links do for me - and average more like 30%. well, unless they are banners that either have a strong message to click or else have thumbs so surfers think they are clicking for the bigger pic. but of course, those don’t convert.
i test this all the time by using different tracking for banners vs text links.[/quote]
Re: What sells best - Banners or Text Links?
i vote text links too, especially well written links!
Re: What sells best - Banners or Text Links?
As Luke said, well written text links work great.
The “gotcha” with banners is that they are very content and context sensitive, and only appeal to someone who likes the image on the banner.
They can do well, but only in the right setting…
Re: What sells best - Banners or Text Links?
You will get better conversions with banners, but text links will make more sales.
Sometimes it’s hard to put a text link in a design that calls for a banner. Also keep in mind that banners help brand, so your text links will do better.
Re: What sells best - Banners or Text Links?
[QUOTE=abostonboy;5338]You will get better conversions with banners, but text links will make more sales.
[/QUOTE]
I am confused by this. If the banners convert better, wouldn’t you always get more sales from them? I must be misunderstanding you…
Re: What sells best - Banners or Text Links?
Banners get less clicks. The CTR on a banner vs. a text link is huge…
Take any page and toss a banner up, and you may get 2% that click it, but may convert at 1:100 (surfers know that a banner leads to a paysite).
On the same page, 10% may click on a text link, but it may convert at 1:300 or higher.
It’s really hard to say what you will get more sales from. Probably you will get more surfers to the site with text links. That in the end may or may not mean more sales.
Banner clickers are more qualified traffic than text link, but the ratio is much lower that will click.
I THINK that if your text links entice surfers to click and are accurate of what you are trying to market, then you will make more sales via text links just by the volume that will click.
Re: What sells best - Banners or Text Links?
Quote:
Originally Posted by abostonboy
You will get better conversions with banners, but text links will make more sales.
I am confused by this. If the banners convert better, wouldn’t you always get more sales from them? I must be misunderstanding you…
I think what abostonboy is trying to say is this: Banners will have a higher “kill” rate (views versus clicks and joins) but text links will have a higher over all amount of sales because more folks will follow them.
Banners tend to appeal to a few, but text links can appeal to many.
The difference is that banners tend to disencourage curiousity, they tend to “pre-qualify” surfers and filter how and who will be clicking on them, which is why they need to be placed very specifically.
Text links appeal to curiousity and might get you some cross-niche sales.
Also, the human vision system has a great ability to “tune out” things you are not interested in or already know how to cope with.
How many times do you actually look at the stop signs or traffic signals while you’re driving? You pay attention to them, but you don’t really explore them or notice details.
When was the last time you noticed the manufacturer’s name of the escalator or elevator you rode on/in? You should care, but you don’t because they all start to look the same.
This is why you can do better with mediocre banners you make yourself than you might do with banners that have been seen thousands of times…
^