Don’t know if you’ve noticed but Adam4Adam rarely ever has banner ads that show the name of the site. Given their size and experience with banner ads it would seem it works for them. If I remember correctly the banner workshop stressed putting the name of the site in the banner… So what’s really best?
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
An affilite asked for some of these so we got them designed and uploaded into our affiliate tools. My biggest concerns are ‘naughty’ affiliates not linking these to our sites, plus losing the whole branding experience. I don’t know if its good or not, honestly.
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
Yeah I would worry about an affiliate trying to pull a fast one, using your designer, your content and then using your banner to promote whatever they want. I would at least watermark the banner with the site it is supposed to promote, even if just barely readable in one of the corners. Of course if you use exclusive content for the banner, you always have the expensive option of suing them, but how will you find out, unless by luck.
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
The only time we would allow an affiliate to use banners without our name in them (to our knowledge) would be with someone I know personally and trust. I do it myself on my sites but of course…I trust myself. LOL. At least, I think I do. He He.
This is a tough one when it comes to branding though. I would imagine it could be a good tactic as it makes people think it’s brand new and interesting. Where as, if the name is splashed all over the place they might be lest apt to click through. Make sense?
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
I have no problems with affiliates using whatever banners can get clicks to our sites (as long as it is legal and not misleading).
Adam4adam’s rule is that you can use the site name, but not .com with the site name.
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
It’s all miss founded ideas. Why would it make any difference if there is no .com in the banner?
-
Why would anyone write down the domain name from a banner, then type it into a browser at a later time… or even at the time they see the banner. If they are interested they would have clicked.
-
Most people will assume a sites URL ends with .com. It’s the standard name most big sites use. If they really want to type it in, they would make a guess it’s .com.
-
Even if they only remember the name without .com, if they type that name into Google they will find the site in most cases.
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
A statement like that is worrying. That’s exactly what would worry me, me paying to have banners created, using my designer, my content, my money, and affiliates using the banners to promote YOUR site. Of course you don’t mind, but it’s just not honest business. And banners supplied to a sponsor but used to promote your (or anyone elses) site is not legal and is misleading. We are all in the business to make money, not to make someone else money. What’s next, let your affilaites use other sponsor’s content to promote your site(s), simply because there is no watermark in them?
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
I don’t think it matters much one way or the other, with or without the .com. If the traffic is clicking through and getting what they at least half expect I think it’s fine.
I’ve been tricked & pissed off before by clicking on an image thinking I was going to see a preview gallery or preview video only to be directed to a pay site I really had no interest in.
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
Just to be clear. It’s more than not showing the .com - they’re not showing the name of the site at all in most of the cases… See the examples below…
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
Isn’t the typin of the domain name or url one of the ways sponsors get traffic from tubes?
Brand names in banners don’t always indicate the true URL of the site.
I think having the .com attached to the domain in a banner is giving away this traffic.
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
It’s one of the things I was thinking when we had the discussion of cookie stuffing. I’m the type that is just likely to type in the name of a site as click on a link. TGPs sorta taught me that much 'cause half the time with a TGP I didn’t wind up where I expected. And even Michael, in one of our private conversations, warned me that I shouldn’t promote the name of the site so much 'cause I was teaching the surfer to go to the paysite rather than my site. I think that’s what Adam4Adam is trying to avoid by not having site names in their banners. I think this is about forcing the person to click to find out more, and encouraging customers to go directly to the paysite by learning the name of the site. That’s all well and good for them since they’re inside a members area on their own site. My case is different since I’m trying to get organic traffic and branded terms yield quality traffic… But it does come with a downside (which is another reason why I’m OK with some “ethical” cookie stuffing - I want to make the sale on people like me who type in the URL rather than follow the link).
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
[quote=tombarr;48936]Isn’t the typin of the domain name or url one of the ways sponsors get traffic from tubes?
Brand names in banners don’t always indicate the true URL of the site.
I think having the .com attached to the domain in a banner is giving away this traffic.[/quote]
Tube videos isnt the same as a banner at all, most videos you wont be able to click on. Surfers are smart enough to know what a banner is and that they can click it. So why would they type in the domain name that’s printed on the banner if they know it will do the same thing as clicking it?
Watermarking tube clips also is done to show ownership and get type in traffic when the video is used or taken out of its context, same as watermarked images.
If you seach for a brand name, it should show up on Google no matter what the real URL is, unless you done something very wrong with your branding.
I honestly I can’t see anyone looking at a banner and thinking, “I got to type that in…”. Why would they? Just look at Google Adsense, do you think Google would show URLs in their ads if it would have had an bad impact on their click income? Unlikely. Instead its a encouragment to click, people know what a URL is and understand its a link and where it will take them.
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
I type in domains from banners. I know others do too. It doesn’t matter where the domain is printed, it gets type ins. Entire marketing campaigns are based on type ins, and they work, (print, tubes, etc). Do people only type in a domain when something is not clickable? I don’t believe that at all. Look at your google analytics referrers, the unknowns many times come from typeins (among some other sources). And that’s the whole point. Putting the .com in the banner makes type ins easier, thus more unknown referrers, and more uncredited affiliate sales.
As RawTop put it earlier, porn surfers used to surfing TGP’s, or link farms, or banner farms, learned to type in banner domains on banners as a way to avoid getting “jerked” or ending up in popup hell resulting from those clicks. I think porn has the reputation to be agressive with forcing people into “traps” and surfers are smart enough to know that, and thus do things, like type in domains on banners, to avoid these kind of surfing hassles.
On this point, I guess we’ll just have to agree to disagree 
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
The other thing to remember that sorta ties into what Tombarr and I are saying is that surfers will invariably do things you don’t expect. Type ins when they could click is just one of those unexpected things. A watermarked video or a banner ad with the URL all encourage something other than a click - even if it’s just in a percentage of users that’s the percentage of sales that the affiliate won’t get if they’re only set up to get commissions when the person clicks.
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
I think you misunderstood what I was trying to say. What I meant to say was that I don’t have problems with affiliates using banners without our site name in them. In fact, if an affiliate wants some banners without our site name in them, I will have them for that affiliate within 24 hours. If they want to create their own to market our sites, I have no problem with that as long as they are legal and not misleading as to what we offer the consumer.
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
There are some people that will always type in the .com.
I know that was Adam4Adam’s policy a year ago - site logo ok, .com not. They may have tightened it and now no longer allow the site name as well.
But, think about Adam4Adam. It’s a hookup site that rotates banners all over the place. If someone is in a hookup site waiting for new mail, there is a reason why the person may want to stay on the page and not click a banner. Adam4Adam probably doesn’t want the surfer the see an ad with a .com and open a new window and type in the site name while they are doing whatever they are doing on adam4adam. (Checking mail, in the middle of a search, etc.)
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
Sorry it doesnt hold up.
I display full URLs on all sponsors on GayDemon, and I’ve not seen a drop in sales since I started to do so.
The fact is, that you will have type ins no matter if they use .com or not. Same result. Try it, type in gaydemon or gaydemon.com, same site comes up.
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
[QUOTE=gaydemon;48951]Sorry it doesnt hold up.
I display full URLs on all sponsors on GayDemon, and I’ve not seen a drop in sales since I started to do so.
The fact is, that you will have type ins no matter if they use .com or not. Same result. Try it, type in gaydemon or gaydemon.com, same site comes up.[/QUOTE]
Have tried banner ads with no site name at all - like most of the ones on A4A?
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
I don’t know. When I am on a hookup site waiting to see if someone replied to my email and saw a hot banner with a url, I would probably type it in vs. clicking the banner. The last thing someone hooking up would want to do is navigate away from the page they are on and show up as “offline” and miss their email.
There is also another issue as well. The banners get displayed pretty much on the same spots. I mean. You read 200 emails and see the site name 200 times in a banner in the same spot day after day. At what point is the site name “branded” in your mind and you just type it in at one point, even if you are not on the site?
Re: Not showing site name in banner ad. Good idea?
Good point - so A4As experience is more intense than say Bjorn’s since people spend more time on A4A and A4A should see bigger problems from strongly branded banner ads. Ergo their policy…