The Damper that is Contextual Ads
Submitted by KidGuko on Mon, 04/21/2008 - 02:53.
What are your views on supplementing your affiliate income with contextual advertising?
I see how contextual ads can be beneficial, and I can see how contextual ads can be a damper. For instance, I would not want to put contextual ads on my site if they drive quality traffic away from my site. Yet, if it can be proven that those who clicked on the contextual ads would not have considered my affiliate offer and they would have left the site anyhow, then I can see it as a good supplement.
So, is it good practice to offer these ads on an affiliate site, or is it a bad thing?
I try to identify a
I try to identify a conversion action for each of my sites. Ask yourself this question - "What is the primary thing you want that visitor to do when they come to your site?" You should then do whatever you can to lead your prospect down that path.
Anything that doesn't contribute directly to that goal merely serves as a distraction. In summary, if your goal is to get people to click on contextual ads - optimize your site and content for that purpose. If your goal is to promote a particular product or service as an affiliate - ditch the contextual ads.
Well spoken Jeremy! That
Well spoken Jeremy!
That insight will definitely help me a tremendous amount with future projects; affiliate and non-affiliate alike.
The one question you asked - "What is the primary thing you want visitors to do when they come to your site?" - is such a simple question that gets overlooked on many websites.
It depends on the site you have
I run a travel related website. I have some affiliate links on the site, hotel booking, flights and so on. I do not promote the site via PPC. All traffic comes from organic search. At the moment I run a test. I hide the contextual ads and watch if the conversion of my affiliate links goes up. At the moment that seems not to be the case. My test will end the end of may and I will post the results here.
My experience:
For 3 weeks I did not display AdSense on a site.
I thoght the earnings of the affiliate links on this site should go up. But in fact, this was not the case. I lost some money from AdSense and didn´t make more from affiliate sales.
Mention, that all visitors came from organic search.
Best
Johann
Try to use Contextual Ads
Try to use Contextual Ads for research.
Install tracking software to see what is getting clicked on, then join those programs and promote them.