Question

Topic: Research/Metrics

Figuring Site Sales With Ad Revenue Model.

Posted by Anonymous on 2/2/2010 at 9:45 AM ET 250 Points
Starting unprecedented website. Although estimating visitor traffic is possible, figuring what goes on inside the site is a lot tougher. My exp is in Adwords and SEO for B-C sites. But not for ad-driven sites. I know the drill. It's tough to control the atoms with no history - website is in advanced planning stage. Since there are less ways to predict this, I see the only way to do any kind of projection is by talking to people who manage or own comparable sites.

**I can not put up a simple site version to test metrics. A database architect is being recruited as a contributor / equity partner. DB component is absolutely required.

Here are the site's B-C components we are promoting:
A) manufacturer product library with superior search; B) articles; C) newsletter; D) industry overviews
and E) 1 unique product for sale. Generally, products are fairly complex and capital-intensive. Ads will be Adsense and direct ads. Maybe a DB subscription, and some other revenue streams.

Target market is people in the short tail. ie: just starting to look. They don't know much. Assume there is a wow factor. I can't tell you here.

So, I need to figure as an order of magnitude:
**avg page views per visitor
** ctr's to the ads


To continue reading this question and the solution, sign up ... it's free!
SUBSCRIBE
Or, SIGN IN

RESPONSES

  • Posted by koen.h.pauwels on 2/2/2010 at 1:13 PM Accepted
    Hi,

    Quite a challenge indeed, in the absence of a test site or a comparison with similar, existing websites. Given your target market, my wild guess is:

    a) average page views per visitor: as long as they are reasonably convinced of the site's credibitliy, a large segment of short tail visitors tends to look at a lot of pages, eg 10-15. The others, still shopping around websites, will only look at 1-2. Depending on the segment composition, you are looking at an average of 5-10 pages per visitor.

    b) clickthrough on ads: will only be slightly higher than that for other sites; even though short taill visitors like to shop around and inform themselves, they often prefer to stay on your type of websites before delving into specific company offers

    Hope this helps - and interested what our colleagues have to say
  • Posted on 2/2/2010 at 1:28 PM Author
    Not to confuse, the database is unique and will act as the lead-generator for everything else.

    Certainly, long-tail types (a bad opening line in a singles bar, or a job interview) will have great interest in the other materials. But if I work from long-to-short-tail I miss those interested in the beginning attraction - the database. The upshot is I have to keep building the part of the site that is residual to the product purchase or there's no growth.
  • Posted on 2/2/2010 at 6:20 PM Author
    That's interesting about short-tail surfers - more page views.

    Big Q is... what are the expected CTR's to ads inside a webite like mine?
  • Posted by koen.h.pauwels on 2/3/2010 at 1:27 AM Member
    My benchmark would be the average clickthrough to Google Adwords ads, which is currently about 2%. Compared to banner ads, this CTR is high because users perceive GA ads to be at least moderately relevant to their search, and coming from a trustworthy source. I am assuming your site will be perceived as such.

    Given your unique database and specialization, you may make a case for a higher CTR, but, eg as a potential advertiser, I would need to be convinced
  • Posted on 2/3/2010 at 8:24 AM Author
    Are we still talking about ads WITHIN my site? If yes, then I'd say GA benchmark is fine, maybe conservative. Inside a site there's much less distraction like out on search engine pages. And at least half the advertisers will be shown thru Adsense inside my site. I imagine Adsense has comparable credibility to Adwords, no? If I have a problem here, I can always give away some ad space to 1 or 2 name brand advertisers at big disct to make me look good.

    The upshot is, I think, if you're trying to create real wealth, it'll be half way to a nursing home before you see it with a plan solely based on ads. So my plan now is to augment product lines in my store to compensate for likely weaknesses in other areas. Of course selling other people's product puts you back in gen pop. You're going head to head with a lot of websites selling the same merchandise, many of which have a higher cred factor because they specialize in these products, whereas they're an add-on for my business. Not that the add-ons dont compliment -- they certainly do-- and extremely well. But I think I have to be more creative to make these products work. Any ideas on that? Merchandising brilliance is needed.


BACK TO TOP

Post a Comment

Related Discussions

Community Info

Top 25 Experts
(Research/Metrics)