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300×250 Ad Stats or Why $1,000 Was a Steal

written by John Chow on August 14th, 2007

I thought I would share some stats from the recently sold 300×250 Google ad spot. Since the spot no longer runs Google AdSense, I am under no contract to keep stats about the spot a secret.

The 300×250 ad spot was purchased by Ryan Stewart of eleven21.com, who is now trying to flip it for $1,500. After the information I’m about to reveal, he may just do it.

Ryan’s ad has been running for only two days and already it has generated 26,395 banner views and sent 820 visitors to Ryan’s site for an amazing 3.1% click rate. If these stats hold up, Ryan will receive over 12,300 clicks to his site (assuming he doesn’t sell the spot). That works out to a CPC of only 8 cents. However, I would imagine the clicks will level off as the days go by. These stats doesn’t include all the traffic Ryan received from my blog post about the sale.

The 300×250 Ad Shows Up In The RSS Feed

rssfeed.png

An unexpected bonus to Ryan (and Bidvertiser next month) is the 300×250 ad shows up in the RSS feed. The reason for this is my ad software served both Javascript and non Javascript codes. Javascript can’t be read by RSS so the ad server sends the non Javascript version. The end result is Ryan is advertising to my blog PLUS the 7,000+ who read this blog from RSS. That effectively doubles the number of ad views the spot was expected to produced.

Expect a Big Price Increase

300×250 ad spot on the blog AND the RSS feed for $1,000. I think Ryan and Bidvertiser pulled down the ad deal of the year. Don’t expect to buy the spot for $1,000 when it goes on sale again.

Daily Webbers said on August 14th, 2007 at 9:09 am

A lot more exposure to the ads I see. Are you planning on making it the same price as Ryan’s or even higher?

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Steven said on August 14th, 2007 at 12:04 pm

Sounds like higher.

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Jorge said on August 14th, 2007 at 9:15 am

That is a great investiment! :grin:

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Terra Andersen said on August 14th, 2007 at 11:31 am

I know, right? I am kicking myself for not buying it!

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Stuart Hannig said on August 14th, 2007 at 12:00 pm

Don’t be so hard on yourself.

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Stuart Hannig said on August 14th, 2007 at 12:00 pm

Not that great, unless you are pushing a product.

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Carl of PseudoPower said on August 14th, 2007 at 9:18 am

The RSS factor helps a ton. That’s the first thing that popped in the head after I was 5 hours late to seeing your $1000 offer.

This is definitely a win-win situation.

I’m super jealous! :)

Reply to this comment
Stuart Hannig said on August 14th, 2007 at 12:01 pm

Yeah, sucks to be late on offers like this.

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Kevin said on August 14th, 2007 at 9:23 am

I’ve used up most of my budget this month, If I hadn’t I would have jumped at the chance to advertise there. It’s the most prominent ad position in this blog and the one which will give a site the most exposure.

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Blogging For Begginers said on August 17th, 2007 at 12:25 pm

I also hope to advertise here

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Baseball Board Games said on August 14th, 2007 at 9:28 am

Another thing to note is that employers often block adsense and other ad networks. Also, a lot of people have adbloking installed on their browser. The current ad spot is no longer blocked.

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BeachBum said on August 14th, 2007 at 10:00 am

Flipping is probably the best first move. The new owner should use a re-direct for the ad and host the image on their own server to test out other offers.

AdSense may not have been the problem it was probably the offers that just didn’t fit.

BeachBum

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KingJacob said on August 14th, 2007 at 10:14 am

He’s already got a 255 bid on ebay not to mention the huge traffic boost, his alexa rank looks like an L.

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Glen Allsopp said on August 14th, 2007 at 3:34 pm

Yeah the alexa stats show a huge boost. At first like i said on a comment I thought it was a bad idea simply because he was taking people to a rubbish landing page if nobody bought it.

Worked out well though :wink:

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Blogging Experiment said on August 14th, 2007 at 10:17 am

For what it’s worth, I don’t see the ad in my feed reader. I’m not sure which feed readers do or don’t but I use Bloglines and I don’t see the ad.

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John Chow said on August 14th, 2007 at 10:35 am

It shows up in Google Reader, which owns the biggest share of RSS readers for this blog.

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Blogging Experiment said on August 14th, 2007 at 2:34 pm

Yeah, I’ve been thinking of switching over to Google’s as well. Just figured I’d mention it. It still appears to be a bargain, especially since Bloglines doesn’t have nearly the market share as they used to.

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Glen Allsopp said on August 14th, 2007 at 3:35 pm

Showing in Google Reader

I assume you are using bloglines? :smile:

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Ryan Stewart said on August 14th, 2007 at 11:31 am

“His alexa looks like an L” :lol:

Well, the ad sold. And the buyer got a heckuva deal - so did I.

Look for more good stuff from eleven21 - I’ve gotta capitalize on this traffic and link love.

BTW John, It’s Ryan StewarT - no worries though.

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Carl of PseudoPower said on August 14th, 2007 at 12:15 pm

Oh snap. :) Congrats. Maybe you should have put it at $2000. :twisted:

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Blogging Experiment said on August 14th, 2007 at 2:35 pm

I thought that’s what he put it at but decreased the price by $50 for every day it didn’t sell.

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Glen Allsopp said on August 14th, 2007 at 3:36 pm

No it was $1500 not $2000

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SEO Domains said on August 14th, 2007 at 11:44 am

Hm, for some reason the title tag is screwed up on this post.

300×250 Ad Stats or Why ,000 Was a Steal | John Chow dot Com

^ it cut off $1,000 and changed it to just ,000

Just a heads up :smile:

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chrisblogging.com said on August 14th, 2007 at 11:53 am

I am anxious to see how much you sell this space for the next time around!

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Geedos said on August 14th, 2007 at 8:55 pm

I think it’s safe to say it will be significantly above the initial offer price. :twisted:

I still think the best way to go would be an auction for the ad space.

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Usman said on August 14th, 2007 at 12:12 pm

Hey John I sent you an e-mail hope you received it, thanks.

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Hector said on August 14th, 2007 at 12:54 pm

John,

I just saw your homepage and apparently the ad was sold, as I’m no longer seeing the original ad, I wonder how much profit your buyer of the ad did

Regards
Hector Sanchez

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Blogging Experiment said on August 14th, 2007 at 2:36 pm

$400 profit not to mention the number of visitors and links to his site he got for his outside the box thinking.

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Geedos said on August 14th, 2007 at 8:56 pm

Not a bad return for about a weeks work! :grin:

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Dave Ward said on August 14th, 2007 at 1:10 pm

If you’re going to pay for the spot, you should rename the ad image in a way that circumvents Adblock. I don’t see it either.

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Geedos said on August 14th, 2007 at 8:58 pm

What’s the best way of circumventing Adblock?

My knowledge of ad blockers is pretty sparse but as this could potentially have a large impact on revenue streams I would be interested to know more about how they work?

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Lewis Empire said on August 14th, 2007 at 2:36 pm

I like the idea of selling the ad but I’m not sure about having the same ad on the main page twice.

At 8 cents per click, Ryan is a very happy man! Oh wait, he sold it already. Technically Rich4life.us paid him for all the traffic to his site!

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Colin Klinkert said on August 14th, 2007 at 5:59 pm

my thinking is that maybe the purchaser should be allowed to supply 2-3 different box designs, that way it is different images a few times instead of the same one?

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John Chow said on August 14th, 2007 at 11:02 pm

An advertiser can supply as many creatives as he wants. The ad software will rotate them. However, I’ve only received one creative.

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MillionDollarJourney.com said on August 14th, 2007 at 6:30 pm

John I must say, you have a knack for promotion and sales. Congrats on the extra $$ / month.

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Stuart Hannig said on August 14th, 2007 at 10:54 pm

Gets decent traffic, very nice. But you have posted a lot about it. Not sure if it’s be so nice next month.

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Webmaster Money said on August 15th, 2007 at 1:41 am

That is lot of money for one spot.

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Max said on August 15th, 2007 at 5:19 am

Hi John

I think there is a little problem with this ad in the Thunderbird RSS-Reader. I could see the ad but if I click on that I only get a blank site from the techzone.com http://www.thetechzone.com/neoads/adclick.php?n=afe648a4

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Sunnye said on August 19th, 2007 at 5:42 am

Not being under google gag order contract is nice!

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