I was doing a PowerPoint presentation yesterday on why advertising on blogs is better than in any other online media when I thought it would be really great if I have the figures to show and back up my claims/theories. Then I realized, I was given some Google Analytics data by a recent advertiser. And here’s what I got…
Without divulging too much information, I compared the performance of the ads on my blog to four (4) other sites which I know carried the same advertising. Coincidentally, the other sites were news sites, a forum and a portal so we have a nice mix of online media to compare.
Of the top 5 referring sites, my blog was the 3rd highest referrer with 19.33% of the total traffic contributed by all five. The first two were the news sites that sent in 39.05% and 23.88%, the forum site sent only 11.56% and the portal 6.19%.
To think that one of the news sites had (at least) 192 times more number of monthly pageviews than this blog, placing 3rd in terms of referrals ain’t bad at all. Too bad, I couldn’t get any click-thru-rates.
What surprised me more were the results of the other metrics:
New Visitors
Site A – 80.5% new visitors
Site B – 69.5% new visitors
Site C – 64.5% new visitors
Site D – 78.0% new visitors
YugaTech – 45% new visitors
Depending on how you look at it, either this blog doesn’t refer more unique visitors or visitors keep clicking on the ads more than once (which is good right?).
Page Views per Visit
Site A – 2.17 pageviews
Site B – 2.06 pageviews
Site C – 1.78 pageviews
Site D – 2.64 pageviews
YugaTech – 6.12 pageviews
Average Time on Site
Site A – 2.24 minutes
Site B – 2:38 minutes
Site C – 1:35 minutes
Site D – 3:07 minutes
YugaTech – 10:17 minutes
It only means one thing — the blog drives more quality traffic because they actually use the referred site more. The figures above shows us 3 to 5 times more site usage by visitors coming from the blog.
Bounce Rates
Site A – 60%
Site B – 60%
Site C – 75%
Site D – 56%
YugaTech – 34%
Bounce rates indicate the percentage of people leaving the referred site right away. So the lower the bounce rates, the better since it means visitors are sticking to the site. Here’s two words to describe that — targeted traffic.
I do not know how much advertising money was spent on all the 5 sites (including this blog) but from the limited data I gathered, this blog only got around 2% of the total ad spendings (I’m pretty sure it’s lower).
If we just go by the raw number of visitors, spending 2% of your ad budget to get 19% of the traffic (and high quality traffic at that) is a great ROI.
The hard numbers above will show you that blog advertising has a much higher Return of Investment (ROI). So next time you’re thinking of doing online advertising, do consider blogs in your budget. =)
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@ That a good information that may increase blog advertising..
Great..
Ahhh! So that’s how it is. Never understood some of those statistic things. Thanks for explaining well.
amen brother abe hehe
Hmmm… Good results for yuga. I was checking your ad rates 2 days ago, and I think it’s pretty important to show targeted ads.
I think it depends on the website and the ad campaign itself. Advertisers should know that it is more cost effective to advertise on a website with targeted traffic rather then buying a volume of ad impressions from an untargeted site. Like for a gadget related product, it is better to get 1000 referral visitors from a tech blog or website compared to 10000 visitors from a non targeted portal, news site or forums.
like in our case, websites that we are promoting using ad banners and links are receiving 9 pageviews per visit, 75% average new visitors and 10 minutes average time spent. Mainly because the banners or ad campaigns are related to automotive, banners that are not that very much related to automotive are not getting that much of attention.
Sadly, advertisers and majority of ad agencies are still concentrating their ad campaigns on large but non targeted sites and i truly believe that if they will try to look around and advertise on multiple but targeted blogs, websites or forums, it will surely give better results for them.
One reason why adwords became very successful because advertisers are atleast assured that their ads will appear on targeted content or sites.
But it is still cheaper to go directly to those websites
( and avoid the middlemen hehe)
my 2 cents
oh, i forgot, the bounce rates for the ad campaigns that i mentioned is 29%
Abe, with tabbed browsing, minutes on site is a useless metrics. Especially when many of your readers make comments and are in the habit to wait for replies. Number of page views may be a better measurement.
I wonder whether small time businesses with a target audience won’t benefit more from bog advertising. For example boutiques or computer repair shops.
And Abe, what do you think about audio ads that pay per page view?
@BrianB, I think audio ads are aggressively promoting this new ad method, But how could they pay a “per page hearing”, especially that my volume is always on mute…
How can we place ads on your site?
Here’s the site we like to promote:
http://www.FilipinoNation.com
I’m actually a regular on this site, particularly because of smart bro!!! this is the first time i made a comment on any of your posts.. anyway, i just want to congratulate you!
Very interesting!
Twitter: millionaireacts
replied on Feb 3rd, 2009 at 4:37 pm (12)
I agree that’s why most blogs are now doing search engine optimization. They just don’t write random articles but they constantly look for the right keywords to optimize.
thanks! very interessing
I just want to congratulate you!
Yah, some guys here are right. kelangan talga targeted keyword and niche…
thanks for the good tips for a newbie blogger.
great post! the statistics looks great and very useful..thanks for tips and idea share..i learn a lot from…;) we will come back often.
Regards,
Marife
To think that one of the news sites had (at least) 192 times more number of monthly pageviews than this blog, placing 3rd in terms of referrals ain’t bad at all. Too bad, I couldn’t get any click-thru-rates.
What surprised me more were the results of the other metrics:
New Visitors
Site A – 80.5% new visitors
Site B – 69.5% new visitors
Site C – 64.5% new visitors
Site D – 78.0% new visitors
YugaTech – 45% new visitors
Depending on how you look at it, either this blog doesn’t refer more unique visitors or visitors keep clicking on the ads more than once (which is good right?).
Page Views per Visit
Site A – 2.17 pageviews
Site B – 2.06 pageviews
Site C – 1.78 pageviews
Site D – 2.64 pageviews
YugaTech – 6.12 pageviews
Average Time on Site
Site A – 2.24 minutes
Site B – 2:38 minutes
Site C – 1:35 minutes
Site D – 3:07 minutes
YugaTech – 10:17 minutes
It only means one thing — the blog drives more quality traffic because they actually use the referred site more. The figures above shows us 3 to 5 times more site usage by visitors coming from the blog.
Bounce Rates
Site A – 60%
Site B – 60%
Site C – 75%
Site D – 56%
YugaTech – 34%
Bounce rates indicate the percentage of people leaving the referred site right away. So the lower the bounce rates, the better since it means visitors are sticking to the site. Here’s two words to describe that — targeted traffic.
I do not know how much advertising money was spent on all the 5 sites (including this blog) but from the limited data I gathered, this blog only got around 2% of the total ad spendings (I’m pretty sure it’s lower).
If we just go by the raw number of visitors, spending 2% of your ad budget to get 19% of the traffic (and high quality traffic at that) is a great ROI.
The hard numbers above will show you that blog advertising has a much higher Return of Investment (ROI). So next time you’re thinking of doing online advertising
, do consider blogs in your budget.
@ That a good information that may increase blog advertising..
Great..
#
Ferdz replied on Feb 15th, 2008 at 4:22 pm (2)
Ahhh! So that’s how it is. Never understood some of those statistic things. Thanks for explaining well.
#
Gravatar Icon Kiven replied on Feb 15th, 2008 at 5:10 pm (3)
amen brother abe hehe
#
Gravatar Icon ChrisMo replied on Feb 15th, 2008 at 5:30 pm (4)
Hmmm… Good results for yuga. I was checking your ad rates 2 days ago, and I think it’s pretty important to show targeted ads.
#
Gravatar Icon jedi replied on Feb 15th, 2008 at 6:17 pm (5)
I think it depends on the website and the ad campaign itself. Advertisers should know that it is more cost effective to advertise on a website with targeted traffic rather then buying a volume of ad impressions from an untargeted site. Like for a gadget related product, it is better to get 1000 referral visitors from a tech blog or website compared to 10000 visitors from a non targeted portal, news site or forums.
like in our case, websites that we are promoting using ad banners and links are receiving 9 pageviews per visit, 75% average new visitors and 10 minutes average time spent. Mainly because the banners or ad campaigns are related to automotive, banners that are not that very much related to automotive are not getting that much of attention.
Sadly, advertisers and majority of ad agencies are still concentrating their ad campaigns on large but non targeted sites and i truly believe that if they will try to look around and advertise on multiple but targeted blogs, websites or forums, it will surely give better results for them.
One reason why adwords became very successful because advertisers are atleast assured that their ads will appear on targeted content or sites.
But it is still cheaper to go directly to those websites
( and avoid the middlemen hehe)
my 2 cents
#
Gravatar Icon jedi replied on Feb 15th, 2008 at 6:20 pm (6)
oh, i forgot, the bounce rates for the ad campaigns that i mentioned is 29%
#
Gravatar Icon BrianB replied on Feb 16th, 2008 at 10:44 am (7)
Abe, with tabbed browsing, minutes on site is a useless metrics. Especially when many of your readers make comments and are in the habit to wait for replies. Number of page views may be a better measurement.
I wonder whether small time businesses with a target audience won’t benefit more from bog advertising. For example boutiques or computer repair shops.
And Abe, what do you think about audio ads that pay per page view?
#
Gravatar Icon ChrisMo replied on Feb 16th, 2008 at 1:21 pm (8)
@BrianB, I think audio ads are aggressively promoting this new ad method, But how could they pay a “per page hearing”, especially that my volume is always on mute…
#
Gravatar Icon FilipinoNation.com replied on Jun 5th, 2008 at 4:14 pm (9)
How can we place ads on your site?
Here’s the site we like to promote:
http://www.FilipinoNation.com
#
Gravatar Icon Sah replied on Sep 17th, 2008 at 9:10 pm (10)
I’m actually a regular on this site, particularly because of smart bro!!! this is the first time i made a comment on any of your posts.. anyway, i just want to congratulate you!
#
Gravatar Icon Nekspux replied on Sep 26th, 2008 at 9:59 pm (11)
Very interesting!
#
Gravatar Icon Millionaire Acts replied on Feb 3rd, 2009 at 4:37 pm (12)
I agree that’s why most blogs are now doing search engine optimization
. They just don’t write random articles but they constantly look for the right keywords to optimize.
#
Gravatar Icon location calvi replied on Mar 30th, 2009 at 11:43 am (13)
thanks! very interessing
#
Gravatar Icon location vacances ile rousse replied on Apr 1st, 2009 at 8:59 am (14)
I just want to congratulate you!
#
Gravatar Icon Tourist Spots in the Philippines replied on Apr 28th, 2009 at 1:48 pm (15)
Yah, some guys here are right. kelangan talga targeted keyword and niche…
#
Gravatar Icon kurt g replied on Jun 4th, 2009 at 11:07 am (16)
thanks for the good tips for a newbie blogger.
#
Gravatar Icon Oxzen Media replied on Jun 18th, 2009 at 8:56 pm (17)
great post! the statistics looks great and very useful..thanks for tips and idea share..i learn a lot from…;) we will come back often.
Regards,
Marife
Do know any school or establishments that offer SEO basic training?
thanks for the good tips
Merci beaucoup