Text vs Graphic on Adsense
Google Adsense provides
advertisers and publishers with the opportunity to place adverts
in both text and graphic format.
As advertisers decide to put adsense into their website over
banner advertising, the question still remains. Which is the
best for advertisers and which is the best for publishers?
On one hand advertisers may feel that image adverts are more
responsive yet less likely to stimulate a sale. On the other
hand text adverts may convert more, whilst being less visible to
the consumer.
Text based adverts are considered the least intrusive of the two
formats. However does that mean that Graphic advertising is
better? Consumers are used to graphic advertising from signing
into free email accounts, and from using other web based
services. Through being used to graphic advertising they have
almost programmed their selves to ignore it. Through the adverts
being untargeted, the consumer is used to brand advertising
which they feel is generally less purposeful. This may cause the
consumer to ignore the graphic advert from the assumption that
it will be the same.
Text adverts are not forced upon surfers. Through being less
obvious some people will not see them at all, however those who
do see them, and read them are significantly more likely to
click on them. This is for a number of reasons, but the first is
that they provide more information. Generally, someone who is
reading text on a page is not going to be fully satisfied by
what they read, and if they check adsense adverts they will most
likely read something which will further supplement whatever
their intention is next. With an image advert, it is far more of
a gamble for the surfer.
Graphic advertising is often paid
per impression. This is because the advertiser may be trying to
promote their brand, instead of promoting a specifically useful
service. They therefore are assumed to have worse conversion
rates, and with this text adverts are in the consumers eyes more
effective. However, if the text contained within an advert was
placed in graphic format, which would be the most effective?
Well firstly it can assumed that the surfer will be more likely
to view it, however if their were multiple image adverts
appearing next to each other they may feel overwhelmed.
Graphic adverts are also harder to regulate. Let’s consider
Google allowing adverts to be changed frequently and without
regulation. The advertiser could claim affiliation from the
website they are advertising on, and contain keywords such as
“ipod” which cannot be contained within a text advert. Although
more regulation and quality control could be in place, a
pornographic image for example could be made to appear in an advertiser’s adverts unknowingly.
Text adverts also have a broader market appeal, as advertisers
don’t generally have the in house resources to create an image
advert, but do have the in house resources to write a text
advert. This could mean that a wider array of advertisers find
text advertising accessible, through text adverts being less
burden on the advertiser, and being easy to change.
Text adverts are also cheaper for the advertiser to create,
where as a graphically designed advert may cost in excess of
$200. Through removing this fixed cost advertisers may be
willing to allot a higher rate to advertising itself; thus
benefiting the advertiser and the publisher.
Text advertising appears to be the preference of the advertiser.
They pay a CTR (click through rate) and only receive targeted
traffic. This removes risks from businesses that previously had
to worry that adverts were not only seen, but clicked on and
stimulating sales. As CPC (Cost Per Click) is more relevant to
text adverts, advertisers are able to gain exposure without
needing a high click through rate to be effective.
The big brands are willing to advertise in both formats however
the broad market appeal of text inevitably makes it the winner.
As flash websites disappear with image adverts, it is becoming
clear that text and information is the preference of the website
users. |
