Competition is fierce in the world of adult affiliate marketing. New affiliates enter the scene every day. It makes sense; the adult industry remains strong in the face of economic downswing, political shifts, and changes in social awareness. Humans are driven to mate, and pornography tricks the brain into thinking that the body is having sex with the people on screen. So no matter what, the adult industry will thrive.
This is good news for affiliate marketers. Adult ads on adult websites generate traffic, period, and traffic equals profit. Banner ads are the go-to choices for advertising on pornographic sites, causing the slots to fill up quickly. Competition drives up the price of the ad space. If you are new to affiliate marketing, the testing phase can get very expensive very quickly.
Then there’s LiveJasmine. They have a virtual monopoly on the pop-under ads. The question is, why? Why has LiveJasmine opted for pop-unders rather than banner ads? Why do few other adult companies advertise this way? More importantly, which strategy is best for affiliate marketers? Let’s compare.
First, banner ads.
Pros:
They funnel traffic efficiently. You can target an age group, a gender, an income bracket, virtually any variable. This results in high-quality leads, which means money in your pocket.
They work. If they didn’t, they wouldn’t have lasted since the dawn of the internet.
They are highly customizable. This allows the affiliate to play with the image, color, size, shape, and position of the ad on the page to maximize effectiveness.
Cons:
They are expensive. Because of this, an affiliate without an adequate budget will run out of money before he has enough data to fine-tune his ads.
Banner blindness. Banner ads are no novelty, and they appear on nearly every website known to man. Because of this, consumers frequently ignore banners entirely. There are a few ways to overcome this. Studies show that banner ads featuring plain text, faces, and nudity get the most attention. Also, if the ad mimics the design and content of the page it is on, it is more likely to generate clicks. The first option is easy, and even intuitive, when advertising on adult sites. The second requires more attention to detail and significant time devoted to designing a banner.
Now let’s look at pop-unders:
Pros:
They are cheap. There is not a whole lot of competition for pop-under ads, which lowers the price significantly.
They bombard the senses. Sound, video, a whole new webpage to capture the consumer’s attention, rather than just a sidebar.
They aren’t easy to ignore. A banner ad will eventually be absorbed into the peripheral; a popunder forces the consumer to go looking for it, if only to close it.
Less time involved. If we take LiveJasmine as our example, they literally use a page from their site as their pop-under ad. The design work has already been done, all the affiliate has to do is put it where they want it.
Cons:
Low-quality conversions. Since the ads aren’t targeting any particular group of people, the click-to-conversion rate will be lower. This is a risk for the affiliate, especially if the company is paying per click. A glut of low-quality conversions will end an affiliate’s relationship with a campaign before he has a chance to profit from it.
Banner ads vs. pop-unders essentially boils down to sniper vs. shotgun. When banner ads work, they work well; pop-unders cover more territory, but are far less accurate. Pop-ups and pop-unders may be the best option for a new affiliate with a low budget. Established affiliates with experience and a budget are better off sticking to banner ads.
