As the online adult industry continues its evolution in 2016, many companies are turning to ad networks to promote themselves or increase their profits. And when companies approach advertising in a wise fashion, the results can be beneficial for both advertisers and publishers.
Nicole Adams, North American sales manager for the Netherlands-based adult ad network EroAdvertising, emphasized that when it comes to advertising, adult companies should not look for a one-size-fits-all solution.
Experienced media buyers know that when trying new sources, you need to be prepared to spend money in order to gather important data that will help you better understand the traffic and which banners, offers, landing pages had the best impact on users. -Richard Cottrell, ExoClick
“Adult companies need to understand that each market is different,” Adams told XBIZ. “They need to be able to offer different pricing and types of spots and geo-segment their traffic to ensure the global market is served. The biggest mistake for advertisers to avoid is wasting money. Talk to your account managers and work out a plan that makes sense for your offer. This is not a blanket market, and every offer is different.
“So make sure your network understands what your offer and goals are. These are the people who see campaign success daily and should be able to offer great advice. If not, you should be looking at a different network.”
Ross Allan, advertising manager for TrafficForce, asserted that perseverance is crucial if a company wants to succeed with online advertising.
“The biggest mistake I see from advertisers is giving up too soon,” Allan told XBIZ. “$100 on a campaign isn’t going to give you great benchmarks. It will barely get you CTR data for your ads. So stick with it for a little bit longer. Companies looking to get into online advertising have to realize that it is a big part of their future growth.
“Companies can’t rely on affiliates to earn them money anymore — they have to be proactive and have an in-house media buying team,” he said.“Affiliate sales should now be the cherry on the cake, with their in-house media buying team being the cake itself.”
Allan added: “Advertisers and publishers already have a mutually beneficial relationship. Advertiser need good traffic to keep their quality up at the networks to achieve the highest payouts, and publishers need good, honest ads to keep their sites free of malware and other bad products. The relationship works best when all parties are making money. No one wants to lose a good partner or a good traffic source.”
Richard Cottrell, global sales director for the Barcelona-based ad network ExoClick, asserted that companies must take into consideration what ExoClick calls “the Fantastic Four”: curiosity, benefit, emotion and credibility.
Discussing the curiosity and benefit factors, Cottrell told XBIZ: “David Ogilvy once said that 80 percent of the success of your ad relies on the headline. Your headline or call to action has to spark the viewers’ interest and make them click on your ad.”
“Playing around with the wording of your headline can make a big difference. Can you create a slogan from the headline? Would turning your headline into a question bring better results?” he said. “By providing a clear benefit in your headline or ad copy, people will click on your ad to find out how they can benefit from what you are offering. You are implying that they really need what you are offering — and they need it now.”
Cottrell said of the emotion factor, “People respond to certain words, especially when they trigger an emotion. The right words will make people click on your ads. If you watch infomercials, you’ll hear and see a steady stream of emotion-triggering words like amazing, incredible, superb, excellent, free, etc.”
“You may hear them say something like, ‘This amazing formula will help you feel superb, look incredible, and make you completely irresistible.’ Who wouldn’t buy that product?”
And Cottrell, addressing the importance of credibility, noted, “Experienced media buyers know that when trying new sources, you need to be prepared to spend money in order to gather important data that will help you better understand the traffic and which banners, offers, landing pages had the best impact on users. Coming in blind to any traffic source and expecting instant results spending $10 is unrealistic and essentially gambling. You might hit a quick sale, but it’s probably an aberration. Advertising is about impressions, and it takes a lot of impressions to come to a serious conclusion.”
Bruzzese added: “Often times, we see advertisers come into the network, upload one banner and one landing page and see little success. They mention that this banner has had success for them with another network or source. This again ties back in to our first point. Not all networks are the same; our sources are different, and though users may very well want your product, you need to test many banner/lander combinations to find the ones that speak best to every network’s sources. When starting with a new network, go into it with a fresh mindset and bring all your cards to the table to ensure that you find the winning formula.”
The ad network Reporo noted that flexibility is a plus with advertising. In a group statement, Reporo told XBIZ: “This may sound obvious, but the number of advertisers who tell me ‘the conversion just died away’ over a period of time is astounding. The shape they buy doesn’t change, but the volumes get bigger. So the overexposure or tiredness of offline, there is also the importance of branding. Do not spend money, invest it. People are often asking for some tips, and my very first one is to stop everything and think about their business. If they are a webmaster, they need to think why and how people would like to buy spots on their pages. If they are an advertiser, they need to foresee what their clients want and how to seduce them.”
Juicy Jay, JuicyAds’ founder and CEO, told XBIZ: “If you’re new to adult advertising, don’t throw money at things and hope something will work. That is a strategy of many, and sometimes, it even works out. But the landscape is changing, and offers you think are hot are probably already stagnant and saturated.
“JuicyAds has been operating for over 10 years now; our clients are savvy and have well-tested our network and traffic sources,” he said. “The advertising world isn’t easy, and you need to be original to be successful. My advice is if you have a reasonable budget to spend, speak to a dedicated account manager about what you’d like to do first.”
Diana Cerone, product manager for TrafficJunky, noted that the online adult industry changes rapidly — and that includes advertising.
Cerone told XBIZ: “Continuously being innovative and reaching your audience with the right marketing approach is critical to remaining successful in any market. One of the consequences of living in a technological age is that we’ve developed a zero tolerance for stagnation. We’ve become a society where everything constantly changes, and we are always on the search for the next best thing.
“Be it professionally, entertainment or our devices, we are always wanting something better immediately. This holds true as well in adult online advertising,” she said. “Staying ahead to predict or identify people’s buying preferences is key.”
