Hey fellow makers, I need your opinion on advertising proposal.

Question

At jobboardsearch.com I list job boards, the top 3 in the list are sponsored slots (Gold, Silver & Bronze) that job boards pay on monthly basis to be on top of the list.
 
Recently a company that is NOT a job board reached out asking to advertise on the top of the job boards (like in the bottom screenshot).

On one side, I am afraid to upset actual sponsors complaining about having another ad above their one (one of the sponsored job boards paid until June) on the other side I need to find more ways to make more money with it as only 3 slots per month because is only $1,123 plus some of the job board listing upgrades (around $500-600/mo right now).

What do you think? Would you feel betrayed?

Would love to hear your opinions. Also, if you have any other monetizing idea will be really nice to hear.

Thanks in advace, Rod :)

Actual
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Proposed

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Jesse · Accepted Answer

Name it Top Placement Ad and just test it out.

To your current advertisers, you say just that. You are testing new types of ad slots, if they want, they can also book it ;-)

Can you maybe make the Ad not sticky and have a display limit of 5x per day or so?
That way you could also tell your current advertisers that they have full day placements and this and is only x timers per day.

In general, I would move towards a CPM based price model or high fix rates.

Jesse · Answer

Yes, per visitor. In paid media its called frequency capping

Rod · Answer

Hey Shadshank, thanks a lot for your reply, it's helpful!

Jesse · Answer

Just google CPM, CPC, CPA, Fixed prices, or even programmatic display ads, dynamic CPM, viewability. Hubspot usually has a bunch of resources

Shashank · Answer

Hmm it's a tough one, as an advertiser I personally wouldn't be offended by that design if the advertised product has nothing to do with job boards and isn't a meaningful competitor.

I don't know much about your user base but as a user I may have the opposite problem, where I may be slightly annoyed with the ad if it isn't related to job searches.

If you're confident your users will remain unperturbed I'd probably put it in and wait to see if any of your advertisers complain, and remove the advertisement swiftly if you get complaints from your big job board advertisers.

Rod · Answer

This helps, thanks a lot!

Gunjan Karun · Answer

I suggest that you do A/B tests for all your options and see which option gives you best engagement/least annoyance to your users.

Rod · Answer

Thanks a lot, I need to research and learn about this ads model, I have no idea!

I you know any resources you can share please let me know Jesse, thanks!

Rod · Answer

Thanks a lot Alejandro. Yep, I am worried about adding it, I need to find a way to make more money without annoying users.

Rod · Answer

Thanks Gunjan, I'm a big fan of A/B testing, I consider it Guessing Vs Science. But this has nothing to do with data but about business ethics.

Alejandro Vivanco · Answer

I think your site may look too cluttered and confusing with that additional ad on top of the sponsored. Instead, I would add an ad under your search bar that reads something like "Site search brought to you by: [$Random Paying Sponsor$]"

(1) Everyone will 100% see the add, as the search bar is very prominent and likely one of the most used features on the site

(2) It will look cleaner/slicker compared to a boxed ad.

I tried adding a sample pic on here -- but can't. I'll try tag you on a post instead

Rod · Answer

Hey Jesse, thanks a lot for your valuable opinion, honestly appreciate it 🙏

Do you mean 5x per day to each visitor?

Go to Homepage	`g` `h`
Go to Done Todos	`g` `d`
Go to Questions	`g` `q`
Compose a New Todo	`n`
Go to Search	`/`
Show this dialog	`?`

Hey fellow makers, I need your opinion on advertising proposal.

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