Putting Your Web Address in Your Banners?

[internetheaven]

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It has been suggested to me that having my web address in my banner will result in lower clickthroughs for my affiliates. I was not given the reasoning for this as it was assumed that I should know. Why, if there is a banner to click, would a user manually type the web address into their browser rather than simply clicking on the advert?

Just to add - it's not that I've intentionally added my web address to my banners. My company name is Claims4Free.co.uk (not Claims4Free or Claims 4 Free etc.) so my banner creation team simply put it into the banners. So it's not like I've put "www.claims4free.co.uk" in the banner, simply my company name - "Claims4Free.co.uk" but still my network are blaming this for the lack of leads they are generating.

Could someone please explain reasons for this suggestion as I have not heard back from my network yet.

[uklejon]

IMO banners have a very low CTR, unles they are something very special.

You'll probably get a better CTR with text links or content links.

I haven't seen your banners but is there a call to action on them?

Carol

[Freebie]

We do not use any banner with a web address in unless there's a specific reason why i want it on the site - which is hardly ever.

I think one of the reasons people do this is because they realise clicking banners = money earned by someone. How long do you need to be using the internet to see 'please help support this site by clicking on the banners'?

Another might be that a user doesn't want to lose their page, so they manually open a new window to type in the address - leaving the page they were on as is.

Probably lots of other reasons, but the important thing is that the network are probably right - you only have to search for related threads here to know it's not looked at nicely.

[internetheaven]

I haven't seen your banners but is there a call to action on them?[/B]

We have "Click Here" and "Click for more information" on several. We had "Claim Now" on a couple but I felt it a bit tacky and against our ethical approach to compensation claims. Our problem is that we want to invite those who already have a claim to use us - not to invite those who hadn't thought of claiming to do so. Therefore "call to action" wording is very difficult which is why we ended up using the default "Click Here".

So would you say that affiliates prefer text links over banners?

[Retail Creations]

We never put our web address on our banners because affiliates don't like it. However, I don't ncessarily agree with them.

Even given Frasers reasons I think that the chances of anyone actually manually typing the address instead of clicking is pretty much zero. If i were an affiliate it wouldn't stop me promoting a merchant.

[internetheaven]

Sorry, was typing that last message whilst you responded!

Another might be that a user doesn't want to lose their page, so they manually open a new window to type in the address - leaving the page they were on as is.

I was assuming that everyone used the "open link in new browser window" functions (on Windows it's simply a right click thing) if they wanted to do that. Is that not generally known by most users? I figured if I knew about it (me being quite computer illiterate) then everyone else would.

If i were an affiliate it wouldn't stop me promoting a merchant.

I'm an affiliate of hundreds of merchants and it's never bothered me. I'll check tonight on whether the merchants with web addresses (such as Dell) have much lower clickthrough ratios that those without ...

[Lee_Owen]

When I used to have a pop up stopper installed I never used to turn it off to accept a page pop up unless it was vital i.e. not for ads, because once upon a time every time you visited a website there was an annoying pop up.

Therefore I'd type the URL in if it was on the banner. Or if it was something I might like, jot down the URL and go there later. Even though I'm on a PC I still use a pen paper although you get used to not doing that after a few years and use notepad or favourites.

Now this only happens when the URL is on the banner and it's either a javascript placed ad, flash or the website has outgoing ads as a new window intentionally. URLs on banners are a bit like phone numbers on landing pages, affiliates sometimes steer clear of them, I know I do unless the offer or website is too good not to promote.

An affiliate wants the click through and the cookie set not to just give brand awareness and possibly lose a lead/sale that way. You could try something and see if your network is correct, simply upload some banners without URLs on and see which ads the affiliates opt for.

It could be any number of factors, a better site in the same category - Given the chance to promote one merchant or another I'd go with the one that gives me the most opportunity to earn money yet retain my visitors.

Incidentally, I don't use a pop up stopper anymore since I started getting more involved in this game and on this new PC because it's helpful seeing what others are promoting plus there aren't that many pop ups about anymore thankfully. (Compared to what it used to be like)

Also to ensure that click through on an ad, I don't allow ads to open in new windows very often. The day flash and javascript or some other method is found of delivering rich media that enables click throughs without pop ups, the better.

Upload some creative without the URLs on, or you're best bet would be to ask people who are in your market and ask them why your program isn't converting as well as it should, I'd help but I don't deal with loans, insurance etc that much at all.

You can still have your website name or product on the banner, after all a user wants to know where he's going and what he's going to be looking at, plus apart from people jotting down and remembering a URL on a banner, people also remember website names when needing things in the future and input that in the search engines.

So a presumed 'unreasonale' response to .co.uk can still pay off if you drop it as you don't lose either way but could gain affiliates. By the time I've written this somebody has probably already said it haha.

[uklejon]

So would you say that affiliates prefer text links over banners? [/B]

Yep.....A lot of my banners are now run on a CPM basis because of the lack of CT....i still show site targeted banners and they click at around 1 in 1000.

All my sales today bar 1 are from text or product feed links.

[ProCash]

Eye catching banners always help and attract surfers, especially animated ones, for me personally and my affiliates, the animated ones got more clicks than static ones.

As for including the website name on the banners, I do not think it matters much.

[aus]

CTR on traditional 468 banners are dismal and have been for a long time for me. I rarely display them.

Only exceptions for me are explicit adult banners on my adult sites, these have a CTR between 3.0 -5.0% on average (for obvious reasons)

[Mogga]

By reason of we don't like merchants putting urls on banners because its free branding for them then its probably a good idea...?