Advertising

[Nickademus]

Just an observation and a pondering. I noticed that Smiteworks has a nice shiny ad on the PF SRD website (https://www.d20pfsrd.com/), but I don't see any advertising on the 5E SRD website (https://www.5esrd.com/). I do see them selling the hardcover PHB and it makes me think, "There should be a Fantasy Grounds PHB right next to that..." Not that that's possible for them to sell, but still. It seems like a good place for advertising; I'm curious why there are no FG ads on the site.

[LordEntrails]

I have some knowledge of digital advertising, but nothing specific to go on. Speculation:
Since those sites look to be run by the same place using the same source, I suspect it's simply a matter that you didn't happen to get the FG ad when you went to the second site. It may have known (via cookie or other tracking) it had already given you that ad and you had not followed it. Or (most likely) that it was a semi-random thing. You profile said to target you with a given category, and they had a set of rotating ads to market to that target. One time you go tht ad, another time you did not.

Note, I did not get an FG ad at either site when I just visited.

[Nickademus]

Did you look all the way down the left-hand column? I see the FG ad (shining) on the PF site every time.

The 5e site doesn't seem to even have these ad slots. I'm not sure if that is due to a lack of advertisers or if it is intentional on their part.

[damned]

FG has always (thats subjective) advertised on the PFSRD site. Its a good observation - it might be deliberate and it might be an oversight...

[Ken L]

d20pfsrd is the one of the most traffic'd sites among all ttrpgs due to the free nature of the Paizo ruleset. It gets a ton of eyeballs daily. The 5e srd isn't as well known, and can't cover everything due to copyright.

[ddavison]

There are a couple different sites owned and operated by the same people. The advertising is different for each site and we didn't have the option to pay one fee to get coverage across all their sites. That said, it might make sense depending on the cost. I don't want to disclose their costs, but some of those advertising costs are really expensive.

[Nickademus]

I figured as much. They may want to reevaluate the cost of ads on that particular page. Seems no one is interested...

[LordEntrails]

Did you look all the way down the left-hand column? I see the FG ad (shining) on the PF site every time.

The 5e site doesn't seem to even have these ad slots. I'm not sure if that is due to a lack of advertisers or if it is intentional on their part.
Hmm, now that I'm on my home network, the ads are there. They weren't loading from the hotel network earlier this week when I replied (none of the ads on that page loaded then).

[Nickademus]

Hmm, now that I'm on my home network, the ads are there. They weren't loading from the hotel network earlier this week when I replied (none of the ads on that page loaded then).

See, this was all a convoluted scheme of mine to get you to look at the ads. That's what Smiteworks pays me for. *evilgrin*

[Nickademus]

Do my eyes deceive me?

Do I see a nice new shiny Fantasy Grounds ad on the 5E SRD? :D

Congrats, guys.

[ddavison]

Indeed, it is. I really need to make a new banner though that is specific to that site. Time. Where have you gone?

[Trenloe]

Do I see a nice new shiny Fantasy Grounds ad on the 5E SRD? :D
Hope you clicked on it! ;)

[Nickademus]

It actually took me to a page of the site I've never seen before...

[sjard]

It actually took me to a page of the site I've never seen before...

This made me curious, so I clicked. Haven't seen that page in a couple of years. That was the standard when I first showed up I believe.

[JohnD]

Doug, have you ever thought about contracting out for promotion and advertising? My feeling is the only thing your competitor has that they do better is self promotion of the product. With a small team it's impossible to hit everything.

[ddavison]

We do contract out to several different groups currently - Robert Adducci runs our Social Media, Gamerati runs our banner ads, Table_Topping does our twitch and we have volunteers who help out on Steam. On top of that, we have the PFSRD and 5ESRD advertising. I've greatly reduced the Google AdWords and Bing advertising because it wasn't very effective. Off the top of my head, it's somewhere around $30K a year in advertising costs, not counting trade shows. Welcome to the world of advertising and social engagement.