Blog Ad Networks: Quantity or Quality Traffic?

In a few months Technically Easy will have been around for two years. Within those two years I have switched blogging platforms, tried many themes, and tried several advertising networks. It seems like there is a new ad network created each day, offering something a little different than the current crop of networks. Some of the statistics published by the ad networks are about traffic, and how much traffic you can drive to your blog.

In recent months I have tried three different advertising networks: Entrecard, Adgitize and CMF Ads. I am currently using CMF Ads, which you can see in my sidebar. I have recently decided to have look at the traffic stats for each network over a month period to see how they compare. Let’s have a look.

Where the Stats Came From

All the stats listed in this post come from Google Analytics, so they may not account for all visitors, but for this comparison it will do. I used Entrecard for over a year, so finding data for this comparison was easy. It was more difficult to compare Adgitize as I had only used that network for a one month period. I managed to find the data for that one month period. Since I am currently using CMF Ads, it was much easier to find the data.

The time periods I will be looking at are:

Let’s have a look at some traffic numbers.

By the Numbers

The first statistic I will look at is the total number of visitors for the time period mentioned above.

From the numbers shown in the above table it appears that Entrecard drives a lot of traffic to a blog, which it does. Adgitize also drives a good number of visitors, and I didn’t use that network too much during the time period. CMF Ads appears to drive little visitors to my blog compared to the other two networks.

A few notes about these traffic numbers that I feel are important. For Entrecard, I had to drop cards for about 30 minutes each day, as well as advertise on the blogs to obtain these numbers. Not dropping cards reduced the traffic numbers significantly.

For Adgitize, I had to pay $14.00 to advertise my blog on their network, as well as earn some credits by visiting other blogs. Since it took too much time, I simply just let my ad run it’s course.

For CMF Ads, I didn’t need to drop cards (saves a lot of time) or spend money as I received credits when people advertised on my blog. The one major factor to the low CMF Ads traffic is that this was the first full month of operation, so there weren’t many blogs in the network. CMF Ads, however, has been growing quickly since it went live.

Now at this point you may be thinking that it was worth the 30 minutes each day dropping cards to get that many visitors. Well let’s look at some more statistics.

Is this Quality Traffic?

While the numbers displayed above look great for an ad network to tout, does it add value to my blog? Does a large number of visitors alone make an ad network great? My opinion is that we need to look closer at the numbers to find out.

One of the most talked about traffic statistic is bounce rate. This represents the percentage of people that visit a page on your blog and then leave without visiting a second page. Most people think that bounce rates are naturally high for blogs, while others disagree. I have visited many blogs that I have clicked on several pages because I like the content. I am constantly trying to lower my bounce rates, and will continue to try.

Let’s look at the bounce rate and other stats from the three networks.

After looking at the above stats you can clearly see one of the complaints from Entrecard members: high bounce rates. Not only is the bounce rate much higher, but the time Entrecard visitors spend on my blog was much lower than the other two ad networks. To make things worse, these stats for Entrecard are almost identical each month that I used the network. Entrecard visitors mainly visited Technically Easy to drop their card and earn their credit, which happens month after month.

To some degree, the visitors of Adgitize are the same as they earn a credit for visiting a blog and click an Adgitize ad, at least that is what I remember. The good news is that it isn’t as rampant as with Entrecard.

With CMF Ads, the only incentive a visitor has for visiting a blog is to read what the blogger has to say, hence the more time spent on a site and the lower bounce rates.

After looking at the two tables of statistics, while Entrecard provides a lot more traffic, I consider that traffic junk. CMF Ads is still new, only a few months old, so the number of visitors will probably increase, and hoping that the quality of visitors stays the same. Adgitize looks like a good compromise between the two, however, it will cost you each month, and you may not always get the targetted traffic you are looking for.