I don’t know how many blog postings and articles I have read that have
falsely assumed that readers don’t click through on sponsored posts.
People like Jason Calancanis, Mike Arrington and others would have you
believe that nobody is interested in this content and the value it
provides. I believe many of these people are the same people that said
nobody would ever click on a sponsored search result (enter Google
representing 1/3 of all online ad spending on the back of sponsored
search).
We now have data from over 40k bloggers and 8k advertisers to prove the
naysayers wrong. The truth is that not only do people click on
sponsored posts, on average they click through at a higher rate than
any other media I am aware of. 10.545% average CTR to be exact (this is
an average over all opportunities, obviously some will be much higher
and some will be much lower).
My experience in buying Google AdWords is to expect an average of
somewhere between .5-1.5% CTR. Sure, I have had keyword campaigns that
might have hit as high as 5% or 6% in extreme cases (like buying the
keyword “payperpost”), but that is few and far between. I also know
that a good campaign on MySpace might deliver a .05% CTR and
that other campaigns I have run through Adbrite and similar media
networks deliver a lower CTR than search
marketing in my experience.
What does this all mean? Does it mean you should dump search or display
advertising? No. I have always been a big believer in diversified media
campaigns. What it does mean is that sponsored content delivers
eyeballs and real, qualified traffic to your site.
UPDATE : There has been talk in the comments about the purchase of products that Posties have been exposed to. Did you buy something you saw on PPP? Let us know in the comments below.
