Comments for Design*Sponge Presents: Building A Better Advertiser

Comment on The report is live! by orangeheat

orangeheat — Thu, 10 Feb 2011 20:54:28 +0000

Thanks for the top ten tips, I’m designing my first ad and it was nice to get some tips so the ad gets more bang for the buckero…

Comment on So, tell me what you want (what you really, really want) by Shirley Cohen

Shirley Cohen — Sat, 13 Nov 2010 17:21:42 +0000

HELP . . . I’m amazed at your website and all of the ‘answers’ you have.
I’ve spent the last couple of years on website and product development, while working in design with my company The Detailed Home. It’s time to ‘focus’ now on Make Room for Baby.

Where do I start?

Comment on The report is live! by decoratorinabox

decoratorinabox — Mon, 01 Nov 2010 20:21:52 +0000

I found the top 10 do’s and don’ts of creating ads for design sites to be extremely helpful. Thanks you so much for the advice. It really helped me notice major errors I have been making and need to correct. I look forward to more ad tips!

Comment on Fancy Targeting Techniques (and when to use them) by admin

admin — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:22:03 +0000

Hi Jennifer,

Text links CAN outperform display ads if they are positioned properly on the page, however, the opposite can also be true. It’s really more a question of positioning on the page more than anything else. You are correct that advertisers tend to feel like they should have to pay more than a certain price for a text ad, although it’s not really that logical (an ad is an ad, and it’s value is directly proportional to how many clicks it will drive). Good luck with adding display ads and keep in touch!

best,
Aaron

Comment on Fancy Targeting Techniques (and when to use them) by admin

admin — Fri, 22 Oct 2010 18:17:55 +0000

You’re right, people DON’T want emails like that, and I’d advise against going forward with this campaign. If you’re going to email people any sort of promotional message, you want to have their permission (for example, they’ve submitted their email address to you with the understanding that you may contact them, as well as giving them the option to “unsubscribe” at any point). Good luck!

Comment on Fancy Targeting Techniques (and when to use them) by Jennifer

Jennifer — Sun, 17 Oct 2010 22:02:07 +0000

I’ve heard that text links get a much better click-through rate than display ads. Do you have any experience with this?

From my experience, more readers do click on the text links (the only ones I sell right now) in the morning. That’s what my advertisers say.

But while text links seem to perform better, advertisers don’t want to pay above a certain price. That’s why I’m adding display ads. Any thoughts on the topic?

Comment on Fancy Targeting Techniques (and when to use them) by efecto44

efecto44 — Sat, 16 Oct 2010 05:35:25 +0000

Hi! I live in Argentina and I am finding your tips on marketing and advertising very helpful.
I´m about to use a list of email adresses to market my stuff (furniture I design and build) but I have a question: why people would open an email from an unknown sender? I never open those messages. Is it actually useful to advertise that way? Is there a right way to do it?
Thanks a lot and sorry for my spelling, obviously En

Comment on Fancy Targeting Techniques (and when to use them) by admin

admin — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 19:43:41 +0000

Hi Lucy,

It really depends. We definitely have the highest traffic between 10AM-2PM Eastern Time, but you are correct that we have readers in many time zones and around the world. But as far as campaign performance by hour, it really depends on which ad unit on the page you’re looking at, as they each perform differently.

Not a super fun or helpful answer – but definitely true!

As Felice mentions, the best way to tell what works is to test. Start out by running your ad ALL the time, and then look at an hour-by-hour report once you have at least 2 weeks worth of data. We give our advertisers access to this data, and the ability to generate these types of reports. Once you have a sense of when you’re getting the most traction – then it’s time to refine.

Same thing is true of email marketing – I’d test multiple times throughout the day and check both open rates and click rates based on what time the emails were sent. Every site and email list performs in it’s own way, so I don’t want to generalize without knowing a bit more.

Thanks!
Aaron

Comment on Fancy Targeting Techniques (and when to use them) by Lucy Thornton

Lucy Thornton — Wed, 22 Sep 2010 18:44:54 +0000

Nice post Felice – I get higher click-through rates for online ads when I have them appearing first thing in the morning or around lunch time.

I’ve talked to my clients and they agree they’re looking for something light to ease into the work day (i.e. so are more likely to click through to a blog post or other online page that interests them).

Or they’re looking for something to help them get through that dip after lunchtime (yawn…) and a timely relevant ad can provide a bit of a break.

Aaron, have you found this with click-throughs on design*sponge? I guess it varies because your readers are across different time zones, but if you’re marketing locally it’s worth noting when planning your email shots and other online activity.

That’s my experience – what’s yours? Lucy

Comment on Before You Get Started: Traffic Sources by nurse practitioner

nurse practitioner — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 17:10:15 +0000

Terrific work! This is the type of information that should be shared around the web. Shame on the search engines for not positioning this post higher!