A month ago, I introduced my newest test tube article on the Chitika Premium ad service. You can review the original post for the complete details but basically, I tested the Chitika Premium ads (they deliver extremely targeted ads and appear only to visitors arriving directly from a Search Engine (SE) query) to see what sort of results they would deliver. I placed the 468 X 60 ad at the top of my pages, just below the <H1> heading, as recommended by my Chitika account representative.
The results?
Almost identical results to the site’s overall statistical averages (which were pretty lackluster if you remember, and one of the main reasons I embarked on this experiment). There was absolutely no increase in CTR (click through rate) or average CPC (cost per click) through 60,000 ad impressions – certainly enough data from which to draw conclusions.
While the results are a little disappointing, I can’t say I’m surprised. Here’s why…
1) While placing an extremely targeted ad at the very top of your page ensures your visitor is going to see it, it seems to me a qualified visitor (who is arriving directly from a SE search query, remember?) is going to want to read at least a portion of your article before she is going to be interested in purchasing anything.
People arrive at UltimateFatBurner.com largely because they are researching products-something they do before they buy. So to me, having an ad at the top of the page is counter-intuitive – at least for my UltimateFatBurner.com site, given the way people use it.
It would make more sense to place a targeted ad at the end of the article. When people have finished their research, they are in a better position to make a purchasing decision and may be more likely to respond positively to a targeted ad.
2) I used a small ad size (468 X 60), only able to deliver a single advertising option. My Chitika account representative advised using a larger ad size, but I decided to start off with a smaller one because I don’t want to bombard my visitors with intrusive advertising.
So what’s next?
Obviously, I haven’t given up on the Chitika Premium ads. To me the next steps are obvious…
1) Run the exact same test again, except increase the ad size – as recommended by my account representative (I’m going to use the 550 X 120 option). I will implement this test immediately following the completion of this article.
2) After that, run a new test where a larger sized ad is displayed towards the end of each page, where a visitor is more likely to respond positively to a targeted ad. If I were a betting man, this is the option I would guess would fare the best.
Let’s see what happens. I’ll check in with you in a month!
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