Online advertising has always fascinated me. Back in 1994 I was part of the group that posted the (arguably) first paid banner ads on a major network. The AT&T banners, part of the “You Will” campaign, had a 78% clickthrough rate on WIRED Magazine’s Hotwired network.
Lately I’ve been talking to a lot of people about the lack of optimized dating site advertising. It’s surprising how few sites do thorough A/B testing. We’ve all seen the ads, whether you’re single or not. Try as I will, it’s impossible for me to get these ads off my Facebook pages, maybe I just need to say I’m in a relationship, but something tells me even that will not be enough to stem the tide of nubile women wanting to meet me tonight.
Recently I had lunch with someone who has bought tens of millions of dollars of dating industry advertising and they said that Match probably wastes 50% of their ad spend on generic un-targeted advertising. Whether or not that is a valid statement is not the point. The point is that dating sites are stuck in the world of boobs-and-buns advertising, which, surprise, drives traffic, but is it really the kind of traffic coming to a dating site that converts well? I guess it does, which is why the industry is stuck in a rut, but I’m hoping that emerging forms of more targeted and memorable online advertising will be adopted by the dating industry, and none too soon.
Geo-targeted ads are old school, sites like Adult Friend Finder have used them for years. Their affiliate banners are incredibly customizable, a primary reasons why so many people visit the site. I’m surprised that more conventional dating sites don’t experiment with dynamically-generated ads. Milabra is doing it kind of stuff, right now, and the results seem promising.
A recent report stated that something like 18% of Internet users were responsible for the majority of ad clicks. Reminded me of the fact that there are 100 million singles in the US and only a third are using dating sites at any given time. Dating sites are leaving a lot of money on the table, in no small part due to these titillating ads that have remained in vogue for too long. It’s time to move on and target customers with advertising that we don’t have to be embarrassed about. Or maybe not. Maybe T&A advertising is the only thing that works, which is sad both for dating sites and the industry as a whole. 60 million un-served customers. Think about it.
Update: Forgot to link to the post that got this started. Displaying the best display ad with Teracent.
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{ 9 comments… read them below or add one }
A lot of money table?
Fixed.
Most dating site ads are, as you say David, embarrassing. And if they are not embarrassing they are cringe-making: photos of fake couples grinning at each other like tooth whitening ads. The target audience is much more savvy than most companies think – let’s get the real-o-meter out!
If that was true they wouldn’t be doing it.
Sure but it’s like driving your car with 20 octane gas as opposed to 92. T&A ads certainly drive traffic but here I go again asking the industry to try a little harder to reach those 60 million people who think the current ads are a total turn-off.
T&A ads are here to stay not only in the dating industry but a lot of others as well. Since most banners are static (and with no audio) companies need to use images that grab attention.
The other problem is what else can you stick in a small 468×60 space that promotes a dating site and what it potentially offers, besides good looking men and women?
I’ve seen a lot of POF ads over the last few months that have gone the complete opposite and contain just a few bold and simple statements. It must be working for Markus but if other companies start to follow his example POF’s ads may get lost in the shuffle.
But hers the crazy thing, they say post no nude pictures and i can respect that, but I noticed MANY a female profile with tiddies out and so on, but what took the cake was a woman lying on some guys stomach with her tongue out, I looked closer and I saw…
Definetly many of this pictures are fake, are not real couples, members of their sites, and I am curious how many of this women with huge breast picture are members of dating site and how many are adult website pictures.
“…something like 18% of Internet users were responsible for the majority of ad clicks…”
OK. I find this very encouraging. My click rates usually run a bit lower than that. It’s nice to have something to aspire toward.