Survey your advertisers
by Sapphire (March 12, 2008)
One of the big disadvantages of third-party ad networks is most of them don’t let you talk directly to the people buying ad space on your sites. When you sell ads directly (or through a third party service that lets you talk to them), take advantage of your ability to ask your advertisers a few questions.
I recently asked my one lone advertiser (Claire at SharpWitDesigns) just three questions:
- How many visitors a month does your ad on BlueMushrooms send to your site?
- What was your goal in placing the ad? New visitors? Branding (associating your site with BlueMushrooms)? Something else?
- How satisfied have you been with the ad’s performance?
That’s all. She gave me honest, thorough answers that really helped me understand where this ad succeeded for her and where it could do better. And some of her answers are now incorporated into the advertising page, where they can help convince other advertisers to give BlueMushrooms a chance.
What I learned from Claire’s responses was:
- This site has a good audience, and is perceived as a quality site. As I grow the audience, it’s essential that I keep going in the same direction and avoid falling into popular trends to attract a different crowd. You’re a good crowd, guys - I just need more of ya.
- The amount of visitors the ad sent was not stellar, but it sent over people who were actually interested in what Claire does, which is building unique-looking Wordpress templates for people who want a branded site.
As I continue to work with Claire and see how things go for her, I will learn suggestions I can make to future clients to make the ads work better for them. How cool would that be? Imagine a blogger telling you, “Here’s the ad space, and there’s the price. Some of our advertisers have gotten great results by…” Who knows? Creating a special landing page? Using green instead of blue graphics? Whatever! Just the fact that I bother to offer suggestions would bump that client/blogger relationship up to a new level. I mean, has anyone ever done more than send you a “thank you for advertising on my blog” note?
Also, I just had yet another look at Claire’s portfolio and realized that with a little tweaking, one of her designs looks very much like what I want to buy for Project Mai Tai someday. Someday, someday.
Posted in Ad Networks
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