Pheed Read #2 - Standalone RSS Ads Perform, Ad-to-Post Ratios Clarified

December 14, 2005

A few months ago, Pheedo released our first Pheed Read report on the state of RSS advertising, exposing some of the aggregate data we'd been collecting from within our RSS and weblog advertising network. As promised, we're going to continue to do these Pheed Read reports on at least a quarterly basis

A few things have changed since the last Pheed Read, but in many instances the data recorded this time around significantly reinforces what we've been saying all along about how effective RSS and weblog advertising can be.

So, let's get to the findings!

Our first bit of insight is Standalone RSS ads vs. Inline RSS ads. We've had some question on what these ads look like in the context of a feed, so have a look at the images below if you're looking for a graphical representation on what a Standalone ad looks like vs. an Inline, or 'embedded ad', please see these two examples.

Inline Ad Placement

Standalone Ad Placement

Standalone RSS ads are far more successful than inline ads.
A standalone RSS ad (the entire post is the advertisement) generates, on average, a 7.99% click-through rate - over nine times more clicks than an inline RSS ad (an advertisement within a publisher's post).

We often get questions about the 'optimal' ad insertion or ad display frequency. Optimal meaning, "what will get me the greatest click-through?" Over the past quarter, we've payed special attention to this metric and our findings may surprise you.

Placing RSS ads in every other post yields the highest percentage of click throughs.
When ads are placed in every other feed post, users clicked on the ad 3.24% of the time. This is over three times more effective than placing an advertisement in every post in a feed, where the CTR is 1.04%. While this is impressive, it's also important to note that placing one ad to every six posts is also a highly effective ratio.

There are a number of other salient points in the Pheed Read report that marketers and content publishers should take note of.

RSS content CTR varies significantly based on day of the week.
Contrary to earlier "Pheed Read" data which showed peak CTR on Tuesday, Monday and Saturday have emerged as the days with the highest CTR while Thursday and Friday show the lowest percentage.

Mid-week readership of RSS feeds highest.
Consistent with the previous "Pheed Read" report, RSS readership rises steadily at the beginning of the week, peaking on Tuesday and Wednesday, and then declines through the weekend. Average weekend readership is over 67% lower than average weekday readership.

RSS ads are outperforming similar Web ads.
With traditional and rich-media online ads garnering CTR ranging from .20% to 1.17% CTR, according to a report by DoubleClick, standalone RSS ads, with an average CTR of 7.99%, are outperforming traditional online ads by a wide margin.

Bloglines leads RSS readers in market share. **Newsgator family of readers close second**
Bloglines is the most used RSS reader among Pheedo publisher subscribers, consistent with previous "Pheed Read" data. With 34% penetration, Bloglines overshadows Yahoo, NetNewsWire and Mozilla - each with about 14% reader penetration. When you combine the NewsGator family of readers - NewsGator, NG online, FeedDemon, NG EnterpriseServer and NetNewsWire, they come in at right around 20%.

Posted on December 14, 2005 9:27 AM
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