Useless, expensive online advertising

[Norri]

And it's not just small web sites that Google hasn't found that are absolutely pointless to advertise on. Try these on for size...

- Ananzi.co.za
- Webmail.co.za
- BrabysMaps.co.za

All 3 of which fall under Brabys, all 3 target SMEs, all 3 are complete rip-offs. I've had personal experience with Ananzi. They sell you like crazy and simply don't perform. These days I try 1-3 months MAX and then renew if it's working.

[Dave A]

I'm scrambling around to find a survey of online advertising rates. I'm sure I originally found it via one of Ann Williams' B2B newsletters, but it's eluding me right now

Frustrating, because it was quite enlightening. I vaguely recall sites like My ADSL and M&G getting something like 10c per impression for a banner ad, but it could have been 50c per just as easily. I found a rate of R700 per week for MyADSL, but that didn't mention the specifics - it'll either be for a specific forum or for a number of impressions over a week.

What affects rates is not so much size. It's location, impressions, targetability and uniques.

Uniques are particularly interesting. 500 uniques a day might sound like good coverage, but it isn't as simple as that. 500 uniques a day is only 500 uniques a month too if it is the same 500 people every day

When it comes to advertising rates here, I'm essentially in an auction situation by using Google. I looked at pay-per-click yields and converted that to a pay-per-view bid. On average, it must cost about 4c per banner impression to advertise here at the moment if my maths is right. However, there are big fluctuations. There is a location on the left hand side of some pages that would run at about 80c per impression.

[derrickm]

Seems to me the way to do this is something along these lines:

1. Build a working website

2. Add 5 potential advertisers in each category - just business name and phone number, perhaps

3. Get lots of dentists to use the site, for free

4. Once the site has plenty of pages indexed, and a fair amount of traffic, start approaching the potential advertisers. "Hey, we've given you a free listing on our site. If you upgrade, we'll give you a full page ad, 2 photos etc. But you get to keep the free listing anyway."

Derrick Markotter

[Alvin]

I'm scrambling around to find a survey of online advertising rates.

I operate an online business directory for South African Businesses (now bear in mind that this directory is only 4 months old). I get approximately 120 unique visitors per day, and approximately 260 visits per day. If I were to calculate my rates per view, it would look something like this:

Side banner (120 x 60) = R1600,00 per year. That's R133 per month. That's R4 per day. That's approx. R0.03 per unique view, and approx. R0.01 per view.

Top banner (468 x 60) = R2900,00 per year. That's R217 per month. That's R7 per day. That's approx. R0.06 per unique view, and approx. R0.02 per view.

My Premium Listings are R349,00 per year per category per Province. Can't tell you what the hit rate is per category, though, but this got me to thinking that I should probably put some mechanism in place to be able to track such performance per category.

I hope someone can put some other stats on this thread, so we can get a good comparison.

[Dave A]

this got me to thinking that I should probably put some mechanism in place to be able to track such performance per category.

Are you using Google Analytics?

[Alvin]

Yes. I am. Just been lazy to analyze it. Will do, and post stats on my category approximate values for comparison.

[Dave A]

Yeah. It could be a bit of work, especially if you've got lots of categories. I'm not convinced just how accurate any of these trackers are, really. The challenge is stripping out the bot stats...

@ Derrick - I agree. That start-up strategy would make a lot more sense. Especially - build a working website!

[Alvin]

The bots are not counted in the stats that I've posted above. The Google analytics, however, I'm not sure of.

Bottom line is, though. Comparing apples to apples. Banner impressions shouldn't cost an arm and a leg.

In a directory, at R349,00 per year for the topmost package (R29 per month), not many should be complaining. (AND all my links are working )

[murdock]

i put an ad in the yellow pages a long time ago...i couldnt wait for the year to end so that i would stop getting calls from the ad...90 % of the calls were people wanting free cover quotes or just checking prices of the company they were already using and the majority of my bad debts for that year were people who already owed other contractors money found my ad after no one else would do work for them...and of course in those days i didnt charge a 40 % upfront deposit so i got nailed properly.

just something i want to mention about bad debts...i have found people are getting caught out by builders...they pay a deposit and the builder ducks...beware of this...make sure they dont dump a load of scrap on your property...then request a huge amount of money...then the excuses start or they just take off with your money.

i was caught like this ...a builder sub contracted all the work out including the building work without my knowledge...we all started working...myself the builder... plumber..."the contractor" dumped a pile of rubbish in the customers front yard requested a R70000.00 deposit and disappeared with the money...never to be seen again...we all got caught...the scary thing is aparently he has been doing it for years...he just keeps changing his location from province to province.

[Debbiedle]

There are some sites that are providing excellent returns for their clients. In the training industry there are 2 sites that everyone knows about and visits - the rates are mostly affordable and the site owners have gone out of their way to provide industry related content.

I have an interest in a site where business and property brokers advertise. Quick look at stats showed 6500 leads delivered over a period of 6 months.

My take on it? Advertise with the sites who specialise in your industry.