Pronet Advertising

Advertising on Digg

While we are all trying to get our content or service featured on the front-page of Digg, most of us have managed to over look the simplest way of getting there: Advertisements. So how much does it cost, and is it worth the price?

A quick look at Digg's Federated Media page reveals the following:

Selecting the cheapest advertisement and the minimum possible number of impressions, the total comes down to a whopping $40,320.

Assuming that your advertising budget permits for such an expense, is it worth advertising on Digg? Not necessarily. According to an analysis from Chitika, Digg users have a click-through rate of 0.30%, which is one third of the click-through rate of Google (or referral) traffic. Ultimately, you're better off using Digg (and social media in general) to create a passionate following (which ultimately becomes your customer, etc.) than to try and make a quick buck.

**Disclaimer: I am a Netscape Navigator.

Nomadishere, April 10, 2007

FYI - that CTR is about accurate with my experience with Digg traffic. And you're right about building a passionate following, the social media crowd is engaged and happy to participate.

Roger Wong, April 10, 2007

Those rates are "rate card", you'll get lower from negotiating with your sales rep if you're spending enough.

To be honest, a .30% CTR is not that bad for some large advertisers and although I agree that social media is best used to create dialog with your audience, there is still value in the banner beyond driving direct traffic/sales in brand exposure and of course exposure to Digg's influential audience. In particular, if your company/product is relatively unknown but extremely compelling, buying impressions may be a good way to get traffic quickly.

Hashim, April 10, 2007

.30% CTR is not bad at all, especially for a community site.

Mark, April 10, 2007

The 0.30% number needs some clarification: the number is referring to the CTR from visitors coming to a site from digg, not visitors on digg itself. I would guess that number is quite a bit lower.

Sam, April 11, 2007

For that 40 grand you could just hire someone for a year to post everywhere about your site. That will get you an infinite amount of traffic.

HMTKSteve, April 11, 2007

Why would anyone pay for CPM advertising on Digg? Those 2.8M impressions would be eaten up in a manner of hours!

Aside from that, the advertising on Digg is in competition with Digg itself! When you go to Digg you don't leave via advertising, you leave via a story link.

Jaan Kanellis, April 11, 2007

Exactly what I was thining HMTKSteve. Total waste paying by CPM on Digg.

Smaran, April 12, 2007

Interesting! I had no idea advertisers have to pay such hefty sums to advertise on Digg, a site fuelled by user content. I find it really odd that users not only don't see a penny of that, we don't get much acknowledgement anymore either.

Loren Baker, April 16, 2007

A healthy alternative would also be advertising on the sites which make it to Digg homepage on a regular basis.

Angelina ------, April 18, 2007

I dont think its worth it to spend that much on advertising. It would be ideal if unique and interesting content is submitted and you come up organically ;)