Some thoughts on Banner Ads.......

[Jeremy]

Lately I have been involved in a few promotions that utilize me converting traffic from banners. One example that you probably are all familiar with is DonkeyLotto.com. Although Brandon runs that site, I was able to talk him into giving me a banner spot in exchange for dinner at The Palms Although I couldn't compete with Golden Palace I was able to get one of the larger spots.

When I think about banner ads, they are really not the best way to convert poker traffic on the internet. Most surfers have developed "banner blindness", especially players used to navigating through banner packed poker sites. I would take a good text link, article, or review all day long over a banner.

With that said however we are never gonna get away from using banners. So that brings up the question, what type of banner converts? The example I use over and over again is my simple one page site Smoke420.com. I have gotten several more click throughs at DonkeyLotto.com on that banner than many of the other advertisers......why? Because it is different, it's static, and it stands out. When people read it, their curiosity is immediatly tweaked. Then once they get to the site they are even more curious. I have discussed this site before so I won't go into any more depth.

But I just want to stress to those spending their advertising dollars with banner ads that you have to use a banner that stands out. You need to give visitors a reason to think "Hmmm.......that looks interesting, I wonder what that's all about?" No offense to our partners and all the poker sites out there, but simple banners with chips and cards that say 20% deposit bonus are about as useless as rubber lips on a woodpecker.

With that said though, many of our partners have some great creatives that work very well.

I just wanted to throw this post out there to get everyone thinking about your current banners and if they are REALLY working for you, or working against you. One simple tip with banner advertising is to place a descriptive text link directly under your banner that can additionally drive home whatever point you're trying to get accross.

[Georgia Poker]

I agree with you 100% on your thoughts Jeremy. The lone exception I can think of for me is on a blog site. I have a few that get decent traffic and since the format of most blogs (in my case anyway) is to show 10 posts per page, the pages tend to be very long. I use 60X468 banners to take up space and ensure consistent coverage on the right side of the page (where the navigation is). I mix in lots of text links in between but the banners in that case are, in my opinion, a neccessary evil. I feel that if I had 100 text links running down the right hand side then it would appear too cluttered to most visitors.

I'm working with two rooms right now to customize a few banners so that they don't look like the "20% bonus with cards and chips" crap that is so popular. I agree that those banners are about as exciting to look at as women basketball

Any thoughts on this?

[indieangler]

Hrm, all of those Golden Palace links have "PinkBunny" attached to the end of them....WEIRD......

Your middle Golden Palace banner isn't working....the URL is "hhttp://" ....one too many h's.

[Jeremy]

Yea that is for tracking purposes. Golden Palace bought all those ads on an Ebay Auction.

[indieangler]

I was wondering who bought that. Make sure you fix that middle link that's broken.

[J S]

I think that for the most part, well placed text links will get more conversions than banners. But I think that the real value of the banner, especially to the poker room, is the brand recognition.

The banners probably help with conversions indirectly by having someone finally decide to give it a go when they see something cool flash by them in a banner, although the still probably don't click the banner to create the account, you've hopefully already got them tracked through a quality placed text link. So, I think that as long as you don't overdo it, they can be helpful for overall conversions.

Custom banners that blend into the site are the best, but those can take a while to create.

[SunPoker.com]

I agree with most sentiments expressed here although I think banner ads are similar to casinos in Vegas. There is a casino for every demographic in Vegas. Likewise, you can have a banner for various demographics for online poker.

I do see your point that the chips and 20% match bonus banners are old and may be "boring", but people STILL click on the Free money, and bonus banners. Maybe less than before, but some still do.

Some seasoned veteran players and web surfers have probably seen it all (including probably everyone here), but we do have to remember that not everyone has played online poker and not everyone has been online for the past 5+ years. In addition, not everyone is as savvy as we are when it comes to online marketing. We are not affected by those banners, but others may have not seen them yet.

I agree that banners could always be more creative, but I think a nice mix of different styles CAN work well on your site, just like casinos in Vegas. It also depends on the demographics of your site..

I do also see the value of banners for branding as well. Good point J S.

Mark

[Brandon]

Originally Posted by SunPoker.com

Some seasoned veteran players and web surfers have probably seen it all (including probably everyone here), but we do have to remember that not everyone has played online poker and not everyone has been online for the past 5+ years. In addition, not everyone is as savvy as we are when it comes to online marketing. We are not affected by those banners, but others may have not seen them yet.

I see your point Mark, however I think about it like this...

Those same people who haven't been around the internet for the last 5 years, are still going to be intrigued by a great banner (like Jeremy's on DonkeyLotto) so why would you put a bland "20% bonus" banner up there and go for smaller target market, when you can go broad and grab a lot more visitors.

As most of us here know, online marketing is a numbers game. So when it comes down to decision time for me, I go for the larger numbers. Granted there are different situations (i.e if you rank well for a page on "New to Online Poker" your traffic will be more susceptible to the free money ad's) but I still think to be successful you have to go beyond standard, and think outside the box.