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i actually ran an ad this saturday too...but I actually wanted to test how it'd work for selling something so I used an affiliate link. So for $20 I got 19,303

by vaksel 17y ago

i actually ran an ad this saturday too...but I actually wanted to test how it'd work for selling something so I used an affiliate link. So for $20 I got 19,303 unique views, 63,473 total views, 199 unique clicks, 215 total clicks. And a grand total of 1 sales. The click numbers were different though, the affiliate program I used reported lower click #s. I'll make a proper blog post about this later today, since I've been waiting for the 24 hour window for reddit to finalize their numbers. Edit: here is the post with all the numbers/screenshots. Surprisingly I had a lower CPM than Gabriel which is weird since he was spending a lot more money than me. http://blog.styleguidance.com/post/481918228/tried-out-reddit-ads-here-are-the-results http://blog.styleguidance.com/post/481918228/tried-out-reddi...

wesley 17y ago
Well, affiliate programs are known to under report. Plus, some international visitors might not apply for the offer and so on. It would have been better to have a separate click counter in between.
- reynolds 17y ago
  > It would have been better to have a separate click counter in between. I second this. You always want a way to track your actual clickthroughs so you can compare to your affiliate stats. If you're doing enough volume you can sometimes be credited for leads/sales that your affiliate network missed, but only if you can provide them with your own tracked numbers. And really only if the network values your traffic.
zaidf 17y ago
Between the affiliate peeps and reddit, I'd def give more trust to reddit and reserve suspicion for the affiliate program.
jedberg 17y ago
I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience. One thing to bear in mind is that we (reddit) also run affiliate links, so you were competing directly with us. If they clicked on our link first, you won't get credit for it. They may also not count the click from that user twice, which could explain your lower numbers. Our traffic numbers come from the same system we use to track our own website traffic, so we work very hard to make sure it is as accurate as possible, since we sell our own advertising based on those numbers, and if they were over-inflated, our other advertisers would complain vociferously. I suspect the error lies in the affiliate program, who has an incentive to under-report. However, if you'd like to provide us with the numbers you got from your affiliate program, we would be love to take a look and try to figure out what happened. Edit: I forgot to mention that AdBlock blocks a lot of affiliate trackers, but a lot of reddit users specifically disable adblock for reddit, so that might also be a source of the discrepancy.
- icey 17y ago
  Reddit is one of two sites that have AdBlock exceptions on my computers; and it's largely because the ads are usually pretty interesting on reddit. The self-serve advertising system has been a win for me, both as an advertiser and as a reddit reader; so until Coca-Cola and Viagra ads start showing up in the ad boxes, I'm sure that lots of redditors will still keep the AdBlock exception on their machines. (I guess this is a roundabout way of me saying that I like the way ads work on reddit, so I didn't mind turning AdBlock off personally.)
  - vaksel 17y ago
    For me it's just reddit and google. Reddit because I like the way they work. And Google since I want to see what kind of sites advertise for a particular keyword
  - ssp 17y ago
    I have wondered whether the poor response to online ads isn't simply because the ads are so bad. There might be many people like you who don't mind the ads per se so much as the flashing, annoying ads for stuff you don't care about. So a site that made "interesting ads" part of their brand and actively rejected boring and obnoxious ones, could potentially be valuable. Maybe reddit is consciously doing this.
    - jedberg 17y ago
      > Maybe reddit is consciously doing this. Maybe. :) In fact, we use reddit quite a bit, and the flashy ads annoy us just as much as the rest of you. We do our best to keep the ads relevant and non-annoying. If we could afford it, we would just turn the ads off, but sadly, we have to pay the bills somehow.
      - frederickcook 17y ago
        jedberg, I'd first like to say thanks for weighing in on these conversations. It adds a great deal to these discussions having an insider to clarify things and offer a unique perspective. > "If we could afford it, we would just turn the ads off, but sadly, we have to pay the bills somehow." This comment, however, isn't helpful, and obviously isn't true. Reddit built a really cool, useful site for sharing and discussing interesting things, and nobody begrudges them for trying to turn a profit. Reddit wasn't acquired by Condé Nast because they are interested in having a cool service, it was acquired because they intend to make a lot of money off of it. The fact that Reddit has found a way to do this while keeping the ads relevant and non-annoying definitely impressive, but we're kidding ourselves if we call these ads a necessary evil instead of the core of the business model.
joshd 17y ago
"...reddit specific discount code (I went with diggsucks)" Proving you don't know reddit that well. That will appeal to the 13 year old digg converts. The people with money to spend will just see it as immature, and therefore perceive your produce as being unprofessional. OK. I just found your ad - http://www.reddit.com/comments/bgb99 http://www.reddit.com/comments/bgb99. You might want to consider the fact that A Small Orange were advertising pretty heavily recently. That would have cut down on people looking for entry level hosting. Or, perhaps you are right in saying that redditor's are cheap.
- vaksel 17y ago
  well it was just in the link, so most people never even saw that. That might have affected the CTR, but shouldn't have affected the conversions.
aw3c2 17y ago
A dreamhost ad? Well, I guess reddit users are a bit different than the usual guy looking for webhosting. I've been actively un-recommending Dreamhost at Reddit for very bad service I endured for two years and many others regularly do so too. Redditors might have a bad impression of Dreamhost so they might be less inclined for it.
- masterj 17y ago
  Indeed, I saw this ad, and though I can't remember anyone saying something bad about Dreamhost exactly, the name conjures up bad connotations. However I strongly thought about buying A Small Orange hosting when it was advertised but don't have a need for it at the moment. It is bookmarked however. Branding is a fickle matter.

by vaksel 17y ago

wesley 17y ago

Well, affiliate programs are known to under report. Plus, some international visitors might not apply for the offer and so on. It would have been better to have a separate click counter in between.

reynolds 17y ago
> It would have been better to have a separate click counter in between. I second this. You always want a way to track your actual clickthroughs so you can compare to your affiliate stats. If you're doing enough volume you can sometimes be credited for leads/sales that your affiliate network missed, but only if you can provide them with your own tracked numbers. And really only if the network values your traffic.

zaidf 17y ago

Between the affiliate peeps and reddit, I'd def give more trust to reddit and reserve suspicion for the affiliate program.

jedberg 17y ago

I'm sorry to hear you had a bad experience. One thing to bear in mind is that we (reddit) also run affiliate links, so you were competing directly with us. If they clicked on our link first, you won't get credit for it. They may also not count the click from that user twice, which could explain your lower numbers. Our traffic numbers come from the same system we use to track our own website traffic, so we work very hard to make sure it is as accurate as possible, since we sell our own advertising based on those numbers, and if they were over-inflated, our other advertisers would complain vociferously. I suspect the error lies in the affiliate program, who has an incentive to under-report. However, if you'd like to provide us with the numbers you got from your affiliate program, we would be love to take a look and try to figure out what happened. Edit: I forgot to mention that AdBlock blocks a lot of affiliate trackers, but a lot of reddit users specifically disable adblock for reddit, so that might also be a source of the discrepancy.

icey 17y ago
Reddit is one of two sites that have AdBlock exceptions on my computers; and it's largely because the ads are usually pretty interesting on reddit. The self-serve advertising system has been a win for me, both as an advertiser and as a reddit reader; so until Coca-Cola and Viagra ads start showing up in the ad boxes, I'm sure that lots of redditors will still keep the AdBlock exception on their machines. (I guess this is a roundabout way of me saying that I like the way ads work on reddit, so I didn't mind turning AdBlock off personally.)
- vaksel 17y ago
  For me it's just reddit and google. Reddit because I like the way they work. And Google since I want to see what kind of sites advertise for a particular keyword
- ssp 17y ago
  I have wondered whether the poor response to online ads isn't simply because the ads are so bad. There might be many people like you who don't mind the ads per se so much as the flashing, annoying ads for stuff you don't care about. So a site that made "interesting ads" part of their brand and actively rejected boring and obnoxious ones, could potentially be valuable. Maybe reddit is consciously doing this.
  - jedberg 17y ago
    > Maybe reddit is consciously doing this. Maybe. :) In fact, we use reddit quite a bit, and the flashy ads annoy us just as much as the rest of you. We do our best to keep the ads relevant and non-annoying. If we could afford it, we would just turn the ads off, but sadly, we have to pay the bills somehow.
    - frederickcook 17y ago
      jedberg, I'd first like to say thanks for weighing in on these conversations. It adds a great deal to these discussions having an insider to clarify things and offer a unique perspective. > "If we could afford it, we would just turn the ads off, but sadly, we have to pay the bills somehow." This comment, however, isn't helpful, and obviously isn't true. Reddit built a really cool, useful site for sharing and discussing interesting things, and nobody begrudges them for trying to turn a profit. Reddit wasn't acquired by Condé Nast because they are interested in having a cool service, it was acquired because they intend to make a lot of money off of it. The fact that Reddit has found a way to do this while keeping the ads relevant and non-annoying definitely impressive, but we're kidding ourselves if we call these ads a necessary evil instead of the core of the business model.

joshd 17y ago

"...reddit specific discount code (I went with diggsucks)" Proving you don't know reddit that well. That will appeal to the 13 year old digg converts. The people with money to spend will just see it as immature, and therefore perceive your produce as being unprofessional. OK. I just found your ad - http://www.reddit.com/comments/bgb99 http://www.reddit.com/comments/bgb99. You might want to consider the fact that A Small Orange were advertising pretty heavily recently. That would have cut down on people looking for entry level hosting. Or, perhaps you are right in saying that redditor's are cheap.

vaksel 17y ago
well it was just in the link, so most people never even saw that. That might have affected the CTR, but shouldn't have affected the conversions.

aw3c2 17y ago

A dreamhost ad? Well, I guess reddit users are a bit different than the usual guy looking for webhosting. I've been actively un-recommending Dreamhost at Reddit for very bad service I endured for two years and many others regularly do so too. Redditors might have a bad impression of Dreamhost so they might be less inclined for it.

masterj 17y ago
Indeed, I saw this ad, and though I can't remember anyone saying something bad about Dreamhost exactly, the name conjures up bad connotations. However I strongly thought about buying A Small Orange hosting when it was advertised but don't have a need for it at the moment. It is bookmarked however. Branding is a fickle matter.