What's the deal with banners?
 

Why does every sponsor hire a 'banner maker' and use these super fancy banners that no one is going to click?

Bad, obvious ad, gets no clicks:
http://i.imgur.com/sZLqo.jpg

A lot better, less ad spammy, far more clicks, extremely easy to make:
http://i.imgur.com/3sc5M.gif

Has to be the branding, although you could still throw your branding in there on the better ad..

Don't underestimate amateurish looking banners , for the right traffic they can work.

Click my sig and promote I will make you custom what ever banners you need.
In some cases even a custom blog design.

I won't say anything about the banners, but if the WatchMyGF webmaster likes my designs so much he should have hired me. Just sayin' :thumbsup

Are you talking about the over-worked one or the amateurish one anyone could make in mspaint?

My point is there is no need for someone to make anyone a banner. ANYONE could make the 2nd one in my example and it's going to highly out perform the other one and even make conversions go from 0:4000 to 1:1000, and CTR from 0.8% to 4%+

Yeah but the 2nd one is misleading. Surfers kinda hate that.
And quite honestly in certain environments one will outperform the other and vice versa.

Its not about the banner at all and click its about the traffic and what they are looking for.

Blonde bitches exgirl friend is not very targeted to black huge cock college sex tapes.
Banners mean shit if not placed right it will not matter how good or bad they are:)

It's not misleading if the sites members area has the video or it matches the tours content. Even if it is misleading it will get 5x the amount of clicks and sales regardless.

The 1st one MIGHT out perform the other on 1/10 sites. Which IMO it's not out performing anything unless it's 1/2 or better.

Yeah I know the banners aren't the same niche or whatever, wasn't my point. I could throw some ex girlfriend thumbs in the 2nd one and change the text in 2 minutes, it's still better.

yes, but of course that amateur banner ain't gonna cut it if you promoting porn stars/ porn star sites.
you have a wide variety of banner needs based upon niche imo.

"Yeah I know the banners aren't the same niche or whatever, wasn't my point. I could throw some ex girlfriend thumbs in the 2nd one and change the text in 2 minutes, it's still better."

True. True:)

Why not? Throw 100 good pornstar thumbs on a page and send some traffic to it and see which 4 get the most clicks, copy/paste them into the banner. Done. It looks like a couple rows of thumbs that are going to lead to content, not a cheesy ad that the surfer knows goes to a paysite.

If the tour is good it will convert and it doesn't matter if "they were expecting a video", you got more people to the tour and that's what matters.

We have amateur banners for amateur content.
Its all about the boobies...we base a lot of banners on the popularity of gals and in the members area on most popular girls...you have the right idea on seeing what sticks...
I think best banners are K.I.S.S.

Most affiliates I work with create their own banners. As did I.

For me, a banner's job is to promote awareness of a product or site.

A good banner will plant a seed in your mind whether you click it or not.

I think people still respond better to short blasts of text and visual images....... if you do it right of course.

I think sponsors just have these fancy banners made to impress noob affiliates. The affiliates that actually send sales will make their own. If I had never done any testing on banners and whatnot and was choosing between 2 sponsors I would honestly choose the one with the nice fancy banner, and the other I would think of as amateur and cheap.

Jakez, I think not everything is as black and white as you say. I understand you like the "go for all fishes and 1 will got stuck in the net" approach. That's OK, but some people likes to aim and target. So yes, they will know they're clicking on a banner, who leads to a pay site, which will require a credit card to access the content. Pretty obvious and straight to the point. Hence conversions MIGHT be better.

Problem is when the surfer clicks on the amazing banner and the tour is crap, no banner will save that. If you have a great banner that screams YO GOTTA PAY BUT THIS IS THE SHITNIZZ and the surfer clicks, he's almost there to buy. Then he sees some crap... (same old content, or a design that doesn't inspire security, dated stuff, xsales, whatever) and the sale is lost.

Anyway, I don't understand the "catch as many fishes as you can" approach, I could easily make (I DID IT SEVERAL TIMES) an ad piece that will get a 30-35% CTR.... and no sales. After all, it's almost the same as a blind thumb, so why don't you simply trick the surfer with a blind thumb? After all, you might get a 100% CTR . The problem is that surfer that clicks a banner MIGHT give the site a second chance. The surfer that was tricked will NEVER trust you and if possible he'll spread the word saying your site is crap or whatever he feels.

Again, not saying you're wrong, I just don't get it

There is some truth to owner creating fancy banners to impress affiliates, alot of programs depend highly on affiliates. (And to say only simple banners convert is pretty silly). The thinking is, if they can make them look as if they've spent time on them, that affiliates might get an idea of the time they spend on making their company as a whole better, whether it be content, promo material or whatever. Why not aim for one that is NICE and converts?

And also, as it's been said, every niche has a different style that works for it.

And as far as that second banner you showed, it is a bit misleading and sometimes text implies that you will be going to a website and not going directly to an image or video, so you'll only be getting the people that want to go there.

but then you are talking thumbs, not banners. you put 4 thumbs together and you simply have a graphic that looks like 4 thumbs.
there are a ton of surfers who will click on a slick pro banner of a porn star if its well done and seductive enough. if they like porn stars they will want to find out more about Jesse Jane doing double anal in HD for example.

note: i am not saying Jesse Jane does double anal.










does she?










if so, anyone have a link:winkwink: