Hello Joel,
This is great question, with many angles. I have broken down the
answer in a bullet type format to ensure a proper response to each of
your 'sub-questions'. If you need clarification, please feel free to
ask for it. I am using many of the 'industry standards', drawn from my
own personal experience for much of this information as requested. I
own several niche web portals and have held 'helping hand' and high
level affiliate positions with online advertising agencies in the US
and the UK.
- Click thru my site to one of my advertisers sites?
In the internet advertising industry this is commonly referred to as
CTR. ( Click Thru Ratio ) The industry uses the number
1000 as the base standard, so the numbers I will use throughout will
be based off this as well. For every 1000
times an advertisers banner is viewed on your site, how many clicks
will be performed? You asked that your statistics be broken
down for every 100 visitors, so you can simply divide by 10 for a
rough estimate. Be aware though that this method is not always
directly linear,
due to the time span associated with those visitors, and numerous
other factors - much too lengthy to list. This is science in its own
right.
The overall internet advertising industry banner click through rate is
about .2% - .5%. Assuming you are not promoting this site as you
stated,
not targeting to a particular audience, and just placing a banner to
your advertiser, you can expect the base rate of 2 - 5 visitors for
every
1000 banner views, or about 1/4 - 1/2 of a person to visit your
advertiser, for every 100 visitors your site sees. This of course can
greatly vary upon your
approach to making the actual ads, and how demographically you have
targeted them. This base percentage has seen a sharp steady decrease
since
the advent of the internet. I own several high profile websites, with
thousands of visitors from every country, and my statistics back up
these numbers as well. The more I pay attention to what was clicked,
and the more I target those specific ads - the more return I get via
advertiser visits.
Many companies and individuals do see a considerably higher CTR, and
I'm expecting a few comments to prove so. It depends on the type of
creative,
who you are targeting and so much more than I can simply list here. An
example would be if you used a text based advertisement. Text ads see
a sharp
increase over the base CTR of banners, simply because they are usually
more descriptive, and offer more insight to the end source where the
consumer/visitor will end up landing. Rich Media ads such as Flash
often intrigue the user more than regular static ads, and have proven
to be a bit more receptive. This however is not always the case.
Have a peek at this great gathering of internet statistical analysis
sites
http://www.internetstats.com/topic_template.php3?keyword=11
Here is a great read for info on making a banner ( for you or your
advertiser that you are envisioning ) using market research to guide
you
http://www.advertwizard.com/info/resources/banner_tutorial.phtml#research
And a few resources confirming the .2% - .5% overall CTR
Bcentral Who says banner ads are dead? by Monte Enbysk
http://www.bcentral.com/articles/enbysk/106.asp
Clickz Are Click-Through Rates Really Declining? by Jim Meskauskas
http://www.clickz.com/media/plan_buy/print.php/835391
WebDevelopers Journal from June 2000 ( Still amazingly about the same
)
http://www.webdevelopersjournal.com/articles/banner_ads/banner_advertising_industry_stats.html
- click through and sign up on the advertiser's mailing list?
Another great question, that once again relies on how well the product
( list in this case ) is targeted. If visitor 'A' is looking for race
cars, and
your list is about race cars, then you will see a significantly higher
sign up ratio than if your list was about dating. Using psychographics
in addition to just demographics
will improve your chances of converting a visitor into a mailing list
signup. The internet consensus for a target mailing list , visitor to
sign up ratio stands at about 2% and upward from my personal
experiences. So this would leave you with 2 signups per one hundred
visitors to your site, or
20 per 1000, assuming your list is very highly targeted
demographically.
So in your case, if your advertiser owns a mailing list for 'pizza',
and your site is about pizza sauce makers - you should see a higher
signup rate than if your site were about toilet paper manufacturers.
Make the list match the site theme/general consensus and you can
expect some
high signup conversions, and a better overall customer delivery for
your advertisers. If there is no site content to back up this list
though, you will
see condierably lower results. The variables in the area are massive,
and you would need to experiment on your own as I did to gain maximum
results.
There is not much more to this area of marketing from a signup ratio
perspective. The bottom line is results, and the results will always
be a direct reflection of
how well the list/product is geared in light of your visitors purpose
in coming to your site(s).
- click through and make a purchase?
It's refreshing to see someone doing their homework. According to a
survey conducted by Bizrate ( high profile online business
service agency), over 90% of shoppers abandon their carts before they
checkout. So from this data we assume that only 10% make it through
the purchase.
It may seem a little outdated, but my numbers are still amazingly
similar. How does this data translate into your effort? Well -
the visitor clicks on the link to your advertiser. Assuming a perfect
condition, whereas your product matches the desire 100%, then you can
expect 10%
to click through and make a purchase. We must keep in mind however,
that you are dealing with a new factor - which is the fact that you
will be sending
shoppers via an affiliate link. Conversion will work much the same so
long as the product your sending your visitors to match the
expectations without flaw.
Some companies ( Mostly specialty shops ) have conversion rates as
high as 25% as outlined in some of my resource links below. This
should definitely give
you some clues as to how you should/would approach building your
project and site links to advertisers.
This company has a plethora of data that you would definitely be
interested in as far as sales conversions are concerned. There is a
one time $90.00 fee
for access to this data, but it seems well worth the price if you want
finite details on an infinite market.
InterMarket Group
http://www.intermarketgroup.com/reports/icbcont2001.htm
Percent online shoppers survey
http://retailindustry.about.com/library/bl/bl_bizrate1023.htm
Bizrate.com -- October 23, 2000
Imagecast - The problems we solve. 25% conversion references ( Date
and author unknown )
http://www.imagicast.com/solution/problem.html
And some more sites that lead to detailed statistics about completed
sales versus visitors etc...
http://retailindustry.about.com/cs/stats_b2cecommerce/index.htm
About.com -- No date available, but continually updated.
- "Assuming an average (middle of the pack) search engine ranking..."
Traffic is a whole different field of analysis, but I am positive your
question is geared toward how much return on any given site -
regardless of subject, will be received for a medium placed position.
Middle of the pack -
I am using Alexa.com as a basis for my site data. My sites have a
Google Page Rank of about 6 to 7 and rank in about the top 250,000
sites on the internet. I would call our position exactly what you are
seeking - an average site
with average search engine rankings for a variety (hundreds) of
keywords and terms. In theory we'll assume you have a site about
'widgets' ( that is your sites theme ) and desired keyword target in
search engines.
We can't talk specific numbers but we can talk CTR for your position,
and use some of our numbers to verify this theory.
A first page middle position for 'widgets' would put you at number 5
for any given term or keywords. Since we show up at number 5 - 7 for
many terms we know that we only receive 25% ( educated guess, as some
of our top 3 placements receive 200-300% more ) of the actual visitors
that see our listings. We typically see about
2-5 unique visitors for all of our search terms ( about 25% ) , and
you could expect to see something similar, except it would be drawn
off the field of traffic levels pertinent to your site theme/service
area - 'widgets'. You can check out this site to see a sample of
aggregate search query data made that
may be relevant to your site (s) -
WordTracker
Tracks various internet searches for number of keyword requests
http://www.wordtracker.com/
- "Any idea what the average internet purchase price..."
As Mark stated, this information would normally need to be more
industry specific. However there are sites that do compile
data from top retailers and record their sales information in
statistical format. After simply looking at this information ( Top 100
Retailers ) it's
relatively intuitive to assume the average price/sale fits right into
the $20 - $40 range. Almost of the companies listed within these
resources have an affiliate or partners program of some type in place,
and simply joining some of these programs may give you access to the
information you
are seeking.
You had mentioned CJ.com, and they are a great place to start looking
for more in depth information in this area. You would have to surmise
your
own data, but it's still a good resource. This page outlines the
average sales in 2000 and the 2000 holiday season. With over 26.2
million transactions
processed, and the average sale before the holidays was $46.54. CJ has
quite a good reach as far as advertiser services go (ranked #187 on
the internet by alexa.com with about a 1.7% internet reach), so this
data is a
good free sample of a broad range of advertisers.
CJ stats story page
http://www.affiliatehandbook.com/nws/20010121_cjstats.html
Listing of Top 100 Retailers and their 12 month average sales
http://www.stores.org/archives/00top100int_1.html
CJ Alexa ratings
http://www.alexa.com/data/details?q=cj&p=DestSearch_W_t_40_M1&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.cj.com%2F
- "Approx how many total companies/advertisers are there that use a
broker?"
A - Non Porn
Without paying for access to this information it really is a data
collecting game for us smaller guys. I made up my own little analysis
using my time on the internet, and my contacts as a platform. My sites
are personally affiliates/partners with hundreds of sites. (No adult)
Every time I saw a site that we wished to affiliate with, I searched
the site for an affiliate or partners program. I had about a solid 90%
success rate.
Of all these programs, only a small portion ( probably about 10%) had
their own programs in hand and under their control. The rest were
brokers such as BeFree, Linkshare, Cowabunga, and of course CJ. This
data can be considered as taken over time - about 4 years.
B- Porn Sites
I would have to make a relative educated guess and say that almost 90%
of pornographic sites use in house systems to track their affiliate
data. There are a few options for adult site owners via the broker
method, and most
of these sites seem to like to keep profits to a maximum, cut costs,
and offer better rewards to affiliate sites. Accordingly - most pay
very well.
Most of my data includes porn sites. Porn sites are included in the
aggregate data of many statistic tracking companies that I referenced
(it is a retail business in most instances) - to include:
http://www.alexa.com
http://www.nielsenmedia.com
- "How lucrative is the affiliate game now?"
The game hasn't really changed much. There are affiliates that still
earn. It's just time to get smarter, as the market is very saturated
with affiliates trying to make money, and all of them are using the
same methods.
I earn thousands of dollars every month from a variety of merchants.
The key aspects to remember are:
- Keep it simple
- Sell the product or service
- Match your site content
If anything has changed, it's the volume of success rates we are
seeing. There are not many pages (as there used to be), of people
scanning thousand dollar checks to prove to you how much they are
earning. Affiliate marketing
has become a full time dedication. You need to keep your site(s) up to
date with fresh content, and be willing to adapt to the instant
changes the internet has been tossing us. It's just not as simple as
placing a link, writing good
metatags, and hoping for good search engine placement anymore.
These guys at Clickz still have a weekly informative article, all
about affiliate marketing. It is simply some of the best reading that
I have found -
Clickz Affiliate Martketing
http://www.clickz.com/aff_mkt/aff_mkt/
To offer you a living proof example that affiliate programs are still
lucrative, I will send you to Associate Programs. If you want to drop
the the owner a few questions, I am sure he would love to answer. I
have had email correspondence
with him a couple of times in the past few years, and he makes a
living using others affiliate programs. He's been doing this since at
least 1998. Drop him a line and he'll be glad to be a living testament
to the current strength of affiliate programs. At one point he had a
full opt-in list of 18-20,000 subscribers. His list was superbly
clean, and offered great conversion for him because he kept it simple
and staright to the point. I was a member of his list before, and you
may want to join to see what sage advice he can offer. (I'll be
rejoining myself after I am done with this) This is not a personal
referral - I simply have followed the owners advice for some time now
with great success.
http://www.associateprograms.com
The ClubMom affiliate program is a great example to use in this case.
Sean ( last name withheld ) has been running this program for years
with great success. See what top affiliates on this site earn, simply
for linking to the ClubMom site,
and converting users to members. This is a niche program with a niche
crowd of affiliate sites gaining a high signup conversion. If you do
the same with other programs, and market it effectively, you will see
great results. As you can see the
top site earned over $2300.00. We can not see the conversion ratio,
but one can assume it's rather well.
http://www.clubmomaffiliates.com/
You may also want to contact and browse this site. I have found it to
be a great resource for many different affiliate tactics, mostly in
the way the site is presented to the visitors. He sells himself very
well, and there are still many successful affiliates doing the same.
http://www.affiliatematch.com/about.htm
In short - the affiliate earning business is as big as ever. It just
requires a different approach than in the past. Simple links without
helpful backing of descriptions, features and benefits to the end
users will not lead to success.
- "How successful can that approach be?"
Your approach may be successful, but only for a limited time. Search
engines and directories are getting closer to delivering searchers
directly to their needs. This means alot of the smaller sites, with
little to no content will have no good positions while battling with
the sites that do have content.
Consider the consequences of building a site with no content -
- Users come to your site and see four banners. Once in a while they
click through, but see no sense of purpose to your site.
- They won't be coming back once they get to the destination site,
because they know of your lack of content.
- They may remember and brand your site as a wall of links. You lose a
potential customer due to lack of interest.
- Other sites need to make reference to yours in order to build
quality traffic. You'll get very few ( probably none ) from
experienced site owners with opinions and websites that matter to
search engines.
- In the end - all you are doing is Brand Building for the destination
site, and taking focus off of yours. You'll show little conversion
with concern to repeat visitors as stated above.
- "if I were to use pop-up advertising on my site..."
Using the method you described you stand to make very little. Most
Pop-ups (if not all) are payed for based on a CPM method (Cost Per
Thousand - M is the Roman numeral for 1000). With your potential site,
you would only be showing
one page, and one pop-up. It would take 1000 visitors just to get one
portion of a payment. The advertising industry (pop ups) has a net CPM
of about 50 cents - $1.00. So for every 1000 visitors to your site,
you may see that much.
There is much more to this though. Most ad companies base your payment
on a percentage of what they make, with the 50 cents - $1.00 being
what they expect to see. In times of low advertising, your CPM
earnings would reflect what the
agency in question is earning. So if they pay you 50% of thier
earnings, and that is typically the 50 cents - $1.00 range, then you
can expect much less when they have to sell their advertising space
for much less to draw in more clients.
It's a very fluctuating market, and most companies I have seen/worked
with, change their CPM payouts regularly to coincide with advertiser
demand.
Of course it's Marks opinion that pop-ups are a turn off, and I am
inclined to agree. AOL just promised to stop showing pop-ups at a loss
of 30 million a year, and that should be a good indication to you
where the industry is going. iVillage - a leading online Women's
Network, did the same back in June.
AOL to stop serving pop ups
http://www.businessweek.com/technology/cnet/stories/962068.htm
iVillage to stop serving Popups
http://www.internetnews.com/IAR/article.php/1434851
You did ask for a list of Pop-up advertising agencies so I found a few
of the bigger ones for you:
Popupsponsor
http://www.popupsponsor.com/
AdvertWizard (UK)
http://www.advertwizard.com
FastClick
http://www.fastclick.com
DoubleClick
http://www.doubleclick.com
ValueClick
http://www.valueclick
Burstnet Media
http://www.burstmedia.com
Advertising.com
http://www.advertising.com
Those are just a few of the big ones. Here is a site with a concise
listing of advertising agencies available to internet publishers like
ourselves, many with pop-up ad serving options :
Refer-it
http://www.referit.com/main.cfm?screen=displayList&cat=16&header=directory
How I found the answer ( Search Terms used ):
"mailing list signup percent success":
://www.google.com/search?q=mailing+list+signup+percent+success
"internet advertising statistics":
://www.google.com/search?q=internet+advertising+statistics
"mailing list conversion":
://www.google.com/search?q=mailing+list+conversion
"affiliate programs statistics":
://www.google.com/search?q=affiliate+programs+statistics
"internet average banner ctr":
://www.google.com/search?q=internet+average+banner+ctr
" internet statistics "average sale" ":
://www.google.com/search?q=internet+statistics+%22average+sale%22
"affiliate programs analysis":
://www.google.com/search?q=affiliate+programs+analysis
And of course my experiences on the internet since about 1997.
I hope I have helped you with your question. If you want clarification
- please do ask for it. Good luck with your ventures!
SgtCory
Side Note:
As WebAdept mentioned "scumware" is horrible. But I must clarify -
this is not a new development, as it's been around for years. These
articles mentioned are a direct reflection that the industry is
finally starting to take more notice. Visit these sites to learn more
about 'scumware':
Thiefware
http://www.thiefware.com
Scumware
http://www.scumware.com |
