What is your experience with placing ads on your site?

[JTPets]

I run a small pet food and supplies store, we focus on local delivery and 95% of our customers are repeat customers. I am exploring the idea of additional revenue through the random traffic we get of non customers by adding google ads to the site.

I wanted to know others thoughts and experiences?

[doc_choc]

Personally I don't like seeing ads on websites, I think it detracts from the creative visual aspect of the website and for me I tend to filter the content of the ad out and just register an ugly ad. But different generations probably treat ads when they appear differently and the use of an ad may benefit a business.

[Candlestore]

@JTPets ;

I agree with @doc_choc , Website ads are annoying to me.  Its not bad enough we get Spam Calls, Emails, Text messages and then Pop up ads on websites or ads placed right on a website for something completely different.  Now since you are a Pet Store, maybe ads similare to donate to the SPCA or get Dogs treated by xyz Vet, might be different.  But an Add to buy a new Car at XYZ would be a no no for me.  When your looking to sell advertising on your wedbsite that has no relevence to your site it might appear your struggeling and looking for $$$.  But if you advertise or sell space on your site for things that you do not offer but go along with your customers, this would appear to them as more of a recomendation.  So be careful who or what is advertising on your web pages.   I get bombarded with 'Influencers' as they call they selves to write blogs and do recommendations of my products to their followers.  They seem to think they should get an advertising fee upfront plus commisions.  I think the commissions should be enough, and if they are as good as they say, sales and commisions for both of us should go up.  My problem is most of these so called influencers I have not heard of and think it might be scams.  Just be careful.

[DinaLRosenberg]

I am also a no for advertising. No matter what why you cut it, having an advertisement for a particular product or service on your website is almost like you are endorsing it. I can't imagine the revenue side would be great enough to overcome the potential brand damage that could be done.

[rtfulk]

I am not a fan of advertising on websites, especially the google ads at the bottom, when you try to close it, it opens the ad anyway and you can never truly close it.

[Doran]

Hey @JTPets I've had ads on my site for years... mainly on the blog pages.  Here is the pro/cons I've experienced.  

Pros: 

I make a nice chunk of change each month and I'm in a traffic exchange program that places ads for my site on other sites similar to mine or share a similar target consumer.  This gets me some pretty good views.  

I've been able to sell ads for specific companies that pays directly to me.  

Cons:

It slows down your site load time by a lot. 

You have to be on top of what type of industries you want to block: Politics, adult, gaming/gambling.  Those pay the ad server more, so if you don't block them, that's what will show up the most.  People will write you and tell you how offended they are by seeing the ads. 

Most ad servers collect data on web users, so make sure your disclosures are current.  

Since switching to Square Online from Blogger and Wordpress my ads don't work.  I've lost all that income.  Something about the SO platform just doesn't mesh even with the HTML block.  I've had a professional web builder go in and try and he came back with NOT GOING TO HAPPEN.  The platform just isn't made for blogging.  I'm on the fence about switching back to a more mainstream web host that can handle ads, drop ship and blogging.

[Subport]

Google ads are great but companies from products you carry are great.

If you can mesh it with your website so it doesn't look like advertising, it's fine. Overall, advertising probably won't hurt your business.

If you're getting paid by a company to advertise a product you already carry then its a win-win. Try to offer something more than just a banner.

If you're focused on SEO and growing organic traffic, try to stay away from Google ads until you build authority in your website.