Online advertising sucks and doesn't work

[L.C.]

Hey ---------,

 

I got a Google AdWords promo code for free $100. So I applied it.

 

February 20, 40 clicks, $14.28/day budget, $17.14 allocated

February 21, 37 clicks, $14.28/day budget, $11.39 allocated

February 22, 43 clicks, $14.28/day budget, $14.31 allocated

February 23, 170 clicks, $57/day budget, $68.40 allocated

 

I compared it to Analytics and here are my conclusions:

 

1. Almost no dent in the statistics! (This is very bad.)
   
2. Very possible that 90% to 99% of the AdWords traffic are actually bots with JavaScript disabled, because of there not really being any increase or changes in the visitor traffic to getcontinuum.com
   
3. Online advertising via Facebook and Google AdWords does not work
   

Spent $111.24 in four days and you would expect that there would be a very noticeable difference on getcontinuum.com statistics -- results are quite contrary!

 

Previously, we were doing about $3.50/day budget (I think) before we ran out of funds for a number of weeks...

 

And by the way, I only had the top 6 image advertisements running, with the following CTRs:

 

• 3.44%
  
• 2.26%
  
• 0.88%
  
• 0.86%
  
• 0.46%
  
• 0.44%
  

What a shame! Before starting the ads back again when I got the $100 promo code applied to the account, I set the Default Max CPC to $1.25. Then every day until the $57/day test I checked each ad group and upped the Max CPC on the keywords that required, for example, "at least $2.50 for first page bid" or "at least $7.50 for first page bid," plus $0.25 to the minimum first page bid.

 

Yet...the results are shattering.

 

Oh well. I learned a lot about how all this advertising stuff works. =D

 

Sincerely,

Joshua Szanto

Thought I would let you all know.

 

PS. Google Advertising thread can be unpinned now.

 

EDIT: Also, I would like to thank everyone who donated money for advertising! =) Over 100% of donation funds were allocated for advertising.

Edited February 24, 2010 by L.C.

[Samapico]

Unpinned it is

 

( http://www.ssforum.net/index.php?showtopic=24109 for quick link, it got bumped away to 2nd page )

[aquarius]

I know online advertising does work, just maybe not for subspace. Anyways, these were all text ads. We need image/flash ads. People who want to play spaceships don't click on text ads. People who want to buy food for their rabbits click on text ads..

[L.C.]

Anyways, these were all text ads.

This is so incorrect. I'm not sure what makes you think we're doing text ads. If you have monitored the AdWords account, you would have known that we've been doing image-only advertisements for quite a long time now.

 

Like I told you via IM, we stopped doing text ads loooooooooooong ago ever since we realized image advertisements got like 10x+ better performance. Text-based advertising is a thing of the past.

 

EDIT: I apologize guys for the tone of my writing. I'm quite stressed at the moment, so please forgive me and do not take any of this personally.

Edited February 24, 2010 by L.C.

[PoLiX]

Advertising on general sites is the wrong route, and this has now been confirmed.

 

We need to work on advertising on gaming sites. We are aiming at gamers, not just random people who maybe typed in some of the keywords.

 

Try typing in some of them sometime and look at the top results, and imagine what those people are looking for looking at these top results.

 

Free Online Game for instance, most people end up at sites for kids, flash game sites, etc. If you look at those games, they are single player, and don't require a download.

 

The only reason that (well atleast when I had root on TT's server this was true) SSForum was beating out SSDL on hits for some time while I was monitoring the 2, was how much our threads return in results we'd never care to be showing up for. IE: Cars, Tight Ass, etc. Trust me, I have shared some of the odd ones with the admins before over some good laughs. May even look up some of the recent ones and share here later.

 

But yeah. Obviously noone is searching for a game like ours. So we need to go to people who do play games like us, and let them know about us.

 

Just my 2 cents.

[PoLiX]

Search Keywords (Top 25)

[pre]continuum 149 5.2 %

subspace 133 4.6 %

ss 113 3.9 %

forum 109 3.8 %

ssforum 94 3.2 %

to 51 1.7 %

forums 49 1.7 %

a0tqd 45 1.5 %

hyperspace 36 1.2 %

directory 26 0.9 %

server 25 0.8 %

zone 23 0.8 %

0.40 22 0.7 %

ssforums 21 0.7 %

mac 20 0.6 %

coupon 20 0.6 %

download 20 0.6 %

stardock 19 0.6 %

a 18 0.6 %

how 18 0.6 %

free 17 0.5 %

tileset 16 0.5 %

file 15 0.5 %

make 15 0.5 %

quadtree 14 0.4 %

[/pre]

 

Not as bad as they use to be. But that is also cause I blocked bots from reading a lot of forums/threads now. But obviously, some of those, still stupid.

 

 

Keyphrases used on search engines

 

Just a random amount...

[pre]ssforum 85 7.8 %

ss forum 62 5.7 %

a0tqd 30 2.7 %

subspace forums 22 2 %

ssforums 21 1.9 %

ss forums 18 1.6 %

continuum 0.40 18 1.6 %

forum ss 15 1.3 %

stardock coupon 12 1.1 %

desert op 11 1 %

subspace hyperspace 11 1 %

subspace continuum 10 0.9 %

naica crystal cave 8 0.7 %

hyperspace subspace 7 0.6 %

pny a0tqd 7 0.6 %

subspace forum 7 0.6 %

ssforum.net 6 0.5 %

ss-forum 6 0.5 %

continuum directory server 6 0.5 %

a small warzone 6 0.5 %

continuum download 5 0.4 %

top 20 proxy websites 5 0.4 %

ssdir.playsubspace.com 5 0.4 %

firefox not connecting 4 0.3 %

lvzs 4 0.3 %

rip ronald mcdonald 4 0.3 %

continuum mac 4 0.3 %

unable to retrieve new zone listing 4 0.3 %

a0tqd-t 4 0.3 %

continuum subspace 4 0.3 %

avatar obsession 3 0.2 %

site ssforum.net subspace.inet.fi 3 0.2 %

gallitin 3 0.2 %

subspace mac 3 0.2 %

qq 3 0.2 %

[/pre]

 

Again, some very odd ones. But again, not as bad as before. No tits, ass, fuck, cum, cars, clinton, bush, etc. etc. Stuff that would return from the Spam Lounge and World Discussion forums that had NOTHING to do with SS. So far this month, hits are way down yes, but the keywords are more SS like. So maybe it has its downsides blocking the forums from bots, but obviously beyond a few odd ones in there, there are people searching for this game or things in it. But just not enough to make me say search engines are the way.

 

IGN, Gamepro, MMOG sites, Gamespy, etc. Those are where we should put our focus.

[rootbear75]

im sorry, but i burst out laughing when i saw "rip ronald mcdonald"

[L.C.]

mmohut.com

top50.onrpg.com

freemmorpglist.com

onrpg.com

gameogre.com/freemmorpgs.htm

mmohub.org

freemmogamer.com

mmorpg.com

massmog.com

play-free-online-game.co.uk

 

https://adwords.google.com/select/KeywordToolExternal

[Trained]

I advertised on the MMO places alot, they are pretty inexpensive for the month, and they brought the most visitors it seemed, more than MySpace actually. Edited February 24, 2010 by Trained

[»Xog]

I advertised on the MMO places alot, they are pretty inexpensive for the month, and they brought the most visitors it seemed, more than MySpace actually.

 

 

Later today I'll see if I can get in contact with a bunch of the famous gaming websites to see how much they'd charge for advertisements on their page. I know www.warcraftmovies.com is a big selling point, and I think if we can gather enough resources we can definitely get some bigger numbers as per population. That site has 1+ million hits per month. Check out the page, that whole thing is designed as one giant advertisement. It would be perfect for us. Probably expensive as hell though.

 

On another note, if I were to get warcraftmovies.com to advertise this game for a week for like $200-$300, would anybody here be willing to make a background image for the page? (calling The Unliked One... do you read me.. calling The Unliked One... do you read me??)

 

I really don't think we should waste our time with banners and shit, we need to go big to get any attention. The ads on that page always have me clicking.

 

http://sullyplex.com...84/Default.aspx

Edited February 24, 2010 by Xog

[accident93]

we just need a video of a girl at the lower right hand corner of some pages saying "my boyfriend just left me" you know what im talking about. get it done

[»Xog]

we don't need advertisements for Xog, we need advertisements for Continuum.

[»Lynx]

Hate to say it but... I told ya so. Promotions would be best, i.e. getting press reports/diggs/facebook groups etc; and maybe focusing on more of our present problems (zones that are crippled by dead SoPs etc) to help retain our current population as best possible.

[»Xog]

I advertised on the MMO places alot, they are pretty inexpensive for the month, and they brought the most visitors it seemed, more than MySpace actually.

 

 

Later today I'll see if I can get in contact with a bunch of the famous gaming websites to see how much they'd charge for advertisements on their page. I know www.warcraftmovies.com is a big selling point, and I think if we can gather enough resources we can definitely get some bigger numbers as per population. That site has 1+ million hits per month. Check out the page, that whole thing is designed as one giant advertisement. It would be perfect for us. Probably expensive as hell though.

 

On another note, if I were to get warcraftmovies.com to advertise this game for a week for like $200-$300, would anybody here be willing to make a background image for the page? (calling The Unliked One... do you read me.. calling The Unliked One... do you read me??)

 

I really don't think we should waste our time with banners and shit, we need to go big to get any attention. The ads on that page always have me clicking.

 

http://sullyplex.com...84/Default.aspx

 

www.warcraftmovies.com pricing:

 

1 Full Day: $800 per day

1 Full Week: $700 per day

1 Full Month: $550 per day

 

1 Week at 3-10 PM EST: $550 per day

1 Month at 3-10 PM EST: $400 per day

 

This area [site skin] is seen by approx. 1,300,000 each MONTH and generates between 12,000 - 28,000 clicks per DAY (360,000 - 840,000 clicks per month). Our typical customers use the Site Skin for is a 3 day consecutive period for Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, which has gathered the best results, while many customers will purchase it in blocks of weeks or months.

[»Lynx]

For a game that doesn't generate any money, everything is telling me that's a very bad idea.

[»Xog]

That's what I was afraid of. I really dont think many people will agree with funding a 1-day $800 advertisement. Although I really do think tons of people would flock this game should it happen, and I'm not being optimistic. I think though, if we put someone in charge, say someone like L.C., since we know we can trust him with ad money (and in our emails he's agreed that he would be willing to take charge of something like this), we can actually just set up a fund and let it sit there until it collects the appropriate amount of money. Sure it would take a while, but it would eventually reach the goal.

 

And I think that if we don't reach the goal within a 5 month frame, it could really all be refunded (i think there's a small fee through paypal though). What are your opinions?

[»Lynx]

Well, the prices aren't my main issue, it's the fact that we're still stuck with an old client, not much development, lots of zones that are dead (be it crippled or not) and no hopes for a replacement client within at least 1 (optimistically speaking) year, and that doesn't include how long it will take to bug test, then actually roll out the client to everybody. I believe it'd be a lot more sensible to do big advertising plans once we've actually got something worth advertising. To be honest, with the exception of ASSS, this game hasn't moved forward at all since the release of LVZs.

[»Xog]

Well, the prices aren't my main issue, it's the fact that we're still stuck with an old client, not much development, lots of zones that are dead (be it crippled or not) and no hopes for a replacement client within at least 1 (optimistically speaking) year, and that doesn't include how long it will take to bug test, then actually roll out the client to everybody. I believe it'd be a lot more sensible to do big advertising plans once we've actually got something worth advertising. To be honest, with the exception of ASSS, this game hasn't moved forward at all since the release of LVZs.

Where are we trying to go? I like the game the way it is

[aquarius]

We don't need to spend $800 a day on a site for warcraft fans. Our target audience is not people who are already addicted to an mmog, especially one they pay for. Why would people leave a game they're already addicted to, and pay for, for subpace? Our target audience should be those people looking for a 'free mmog'. We need to make sure Continuum is listed in all the 'list of free mmog, list of free mmofps' sites, and target the google ads to show up on those sites.

 

www.freemmorpglist.com/

www.gameogre.com/freemmorpgs.htm

mmohut.com/

mmohub.org/

play-free-online-game.co.uk/

www.free-mmos.com/

www.freemmorpglist.com/games_action_mmofps/

www.mmofront.com/

 

Where are we trying to go? I like the game the way it is

 

We need someone active, or a group of active people that's able to adjust the client. We all like the game how it is, but don't like relying on PriitK for everything. Lots of improvements could be made with server/biller/database/ect, and brilliant API's for developers could be created. I'm not a programmer so I don't know the specifics, I just know the programmers could do much more with access to the source, or access to an active person/group of persons with the source that's willing to adjust the client. We certainly wouldn't run into all these little compatibility problems, we wouldn't run into problems with information that used to be standard but is now obsolete and poorly documented as the new standards. Current development has to hack its way through, and rely on out-dated technologies.

[whalz]

make a video if you guys are so skilled, and put it on youtube, and you got free advertising once you get a lot of video's..

 

dont anyof you have 30k + views on some youtube acount, seriously, that would be your best option

[2pacZ]

I think we need to go with the Evony advertising, just get some pictures of busty babies, and put subspace/continnum right beside them, i'm sure people will click on it

[»Purge]

I think we need to go with the Evony advertising, just get some pictures of busty babies, and put subspace/continnum right beside them, i'm sure people will click on it

Yeah, that's actually the only reason my friend clicked on Evony, and now he's hooked.